This next article is by a friend of mine. It was published in the Pouch in 1993. I had such good feedback from it that I thought it should be re-published here for you, dear reader.

This is a Love letter to my Mother.

With all my Heart and Soul I Love you. My life would be non-existant without you. You have given me so much from the moment of my first Breath. You have been a great Provider and Teacher. I have much to be thankful for.

Deeply reminiscent, I look back over all the years we have shared together. So many good and bad memories fill me up. My brothers, sisters and I have not always been at our best. You gave us unconditional love, taught us to share, showed us the beauty of Life, nurtured the best within us so we would be strong children. You always gave of yourself no matter what. Never did you withhold the tiniest portion. You have sacrificed all your life for us.

You have not aged as gracefuly as I hoped but still you are Beautiful. As always I envision you with the eyes of the child within. When I see you from a distance my Heart smiles. But, as I approach closer, sad ness embraces me. Upon your face I see dried tear stains from the many days you have cried. Your beautiful hair is now thin and dull. Deep lines crease the face that was once smooth. The lovely fragrance which encompassed you in years gone by had been replaced with an aroma most repulsive. You shiver more frequently now. Somedays it's barely noticable and other days you convulse so violently that embracing you is not enough to calm you. Oh, how I long for the young vibrant Mother I once knew.

I always thought, without a whisper of a doubt, that you would be around forever. There is nothing and no one who will ever be able to take your place. I wonder if it is too late to show you the love you gave me. I wonder if my siblings love you as much as I do. What kind of uncaring, selfish, children have we become? Do we possess any of our Mother's good qualities? How much longer will we take you for granted?

We are born to only one Mother and you are the only Mother I will ever have. Thank you for all you have given me. I love you, Mother Earth.

Written by B. Cloud Walker.© 1993   

GREEN PLANET

Once upon a time there was a planet, a beautiful green planet. On that jewel out in space lived creatures great and small. Some had four legs and could run fast, others had wings and could fly. In the waters swam those having scales and gills. Growing on this orb were plants of all kinds co-existing peacefully alongside the creatures, and giving the planet its' hue of green.

Supposedly stewarding all of these inhabitants were the two-legged. They could run, swim and used machines to fly. They killed the four-legged, winged and swimmers for food. the Sensible used the creatures covering for warmth, and every part of it's body usefully. The Not-so-sensible killed only for sport or financial gain, time and time again leaving the creature to rot into the soil. The plant life was treated in the same way, the Sensible cultivated, the Not-so-sensible destroyed. Trees were cut down and none were planted in their place. Pretty soon the balance on the planet was overturned; the large creatures became extinct because of all the wasteful hunting, the plant life existed only where the Sensible two-legged remained. The waters grew polluted by the Not-so-sensible pouring their waste there, so that when the two-legged needed the swimmers to eat there was none. Once the two-legged would go to the waters edge and smile, but eventually they could no longer do that, there was nothing to smile at, the beauty had gone.

Not only did they kill the creatures and the environment, but they killed two-legged as well. As time progressed they found bigger and better ways to kill. They killed old and young alike. They killed enemy and friend. They killed those they knew and those they didn't. The killing never stopped. If one two-legged was different in any way to the one standing next to it, it would be killed.

One day the planet said,'ENOUGH'.

The two-legged had no food left, their water was gone, or so badly polluted that there was none to drink. They had no greenery left, which caused them to have bad air. They had nothing left except each other.

"What did they do then?" you ask. Well my friend I'll tell you. They didn't do anything. They died.

They died of their greed, their stupidity, their ignorance, their blindness to what was going on around them. Their inability to preserve life for their future generations was their downfall. They died in agony, in poverty, in hunger, in the cold, cold arms of their dead planet.

They were Man, the planet was Earth. Their planet is your planet, the Earth Mother who provides us with food, shelter, warmth, love and beauty. We, the inhabitants of earth are slowly killing our home, and one day she will be dead, and so will we.

Think not only of yourselves, think of your children, their children, and the countless generations that could be if only we give them the chance. Rise up from your complacency, your indifference and take a stand. Look around you at the growing destruction, observe the awful pollution which is occurring at an alarming rate. See the death of life going on under your nose, not just of man to man, but man to beast, man to plant, man to every living thing on this planet, this magnificent planet which is lush and green now, but in a decade could be dead. Life as we know it could be gone. Only a hostile, cold, barren planet would exist, and along with that humanity would not exist.

Do something now....LIFE BEGINS WITH YOU.

Written by Gloria Hazell © 1989