Earth Day 2011

Happy Earth Day!

Thank goodness for the achievements of  Senator Gaylor Nelson who started advocating the idea of Earth Day back in 1962.  He is the official founder of Earth Day.

I am at the coast and have a very busy day ahead of me.  We have a group of 7 yoga participants coming here to our home and sanctuary, Little Renaissance, for our annual Earth Day Retreat.  We have had a very cold spring, the coldest on record for this area since the 70’s.  Blooms of every sort from apple blossoms to tulips to rhododendrons are about one month behind.  However, today happens to be a dreamy warm sunny day.

Bill got a ride to the coast with us last night and Brent, our guest biologist who will take the group on the interpretive hike tomorrow and later present one of his fantastic educational respect-and-preserve-the-beauty-of-the-Earth slide shows,  drove in last night from Vancouver, BC.  This morning, I snuck up on the “boys” and, through the screened windows, took pictures of them enjoying the hot tub:

I found this beautiful passage in Henryk Skolimowski’s Eco Yoga:

We practice yoga in order to have a healthy and harmonious body, but we also practice yoga to attain peace of mind.  If your mind is not at peace following yoga practices, then your yoga is not working as it should for you.

Nowadays, in order to have peace of mind, it is vital that you establish peace with Mother Earth.  Healing the earth, so that future generations have a chance to live, is part of your peace of mind and part of the peace within your body. This is an important message of Eco Yoga.

If you truly care for your peace of mind and for the harmony within your body, you cannot escape the responsibility for healing the planet.  Heal the earth/heal thyself are aspects of the same process.

During the last decade a  powerful new symbol has emerged. The Greek name for the goddess of the earth was Gaia.  Conceived as Mother Earth alive in her total being, as the source of life, Gaia has become a new point of convergence, has emerged as a new myth of our times.

Well, the flowers are in the vases and now my focus goes to the cooking and cleaning for the Earth Day Retreat which officially begins in six hours!!!