Thursday, April 22, 2010

Earth Day Lessons


Keep close to Nature's heart...
and break clear away,
once in awhile,
and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods.
Wash your spirit clean.
~John Muir


Earth Day lessons from my nephew Benjamin
and his Labradoodle Lucy.



Play outside!

Hang in a flower bed!


Help in the veggie garden ...


And get seriously dirty!


Talk to the animals ...


And teach everyone to appreciate even the tiny
ones with 6 legs!



Make wishes on Dandelions


And enjoy the beautiful little moments on this
extraordinary planet.


And I would add ... give back and find new ways to leave as little footprint as possible on our beautiful planet.

I learned from my sister that you can use cloth napkins everyday and if you forget the reusable grocery bags in the car leave the cart and go get them! I also got a reverse osmosis water filter and the water tastes so much better than from plastic water bottles! I fill up my cute red stainless water bottle and I'm good to go! I recycle, buy used clothes and earth friendly cleaning products, eat as much locally grown food as I can, and I print on both sides of my recycled paper. Little by little I am adding to the list!

One of my favorite lines was by my friend Royce. He walked into my apartment and on seeing I had lights on in 3 rooms said in a deadpan voice, "Um, Al Gore called. Wants me to tell you to shut your lights off." Then he laughed, and so did I but I am much better now about shutting off my lights!

Some of my favorite places to give back and help the planet are World Wildlife Fund, Defenders of Wildlife, National Wildlife Federation and Surfrider Foundation. And to find out where to buy locally in your area ... check out Local Harvest. My favorite eco blog that has tons of cool creative inventions and ideas is INHABITAT. Definitely worth checking out these sites!

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread,
places to play in and pray in,
where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike.
John Muir

Happy Earth Day!
What are your favorite earth day ideas and lessons?

13 comments:

PK Studios said...

Love it!!! : ) I will show Ben tomorrow.

Loree said...

Great post. We all should do our little bit for the planet.

Kerry O'Gorman said...

In my world every day is Earth day! And I say YES to everything you have posted. I especially love the shot of boy, bug and crouching elders...cheers.

Joyce said...

A wonderful post. If we just start with baby steps we can take bigger steps. Your nephew is so cute!

Bungalow 36 said...

Beautiful! I just love Ben with the monkey that is my favorite! The monkey looks truly interested in him and his story :) So adorable!

BB said...

Cobalt, thank you for the beauty of these photos and thoughts.
I seriously needed that after that hard "wake up call" that happened in the Gulf of M.
There is still a long way to go,i pray that we as "visitors to the planet", since we don´t remain eternally over here, will do a more fruitfull work to preserve the world for our children.
Warm regards from Portugal, and once again thank you for lifting my heart.

Victoria said...

Yay...fabulous postbeautiful photos...what a beautiful tribute to earth day! Awesome inspiring links..and a super-inspiring post..you rock!
Kiki~

Unknown said...

Great post! Lovely and evocatice photos.

Candy said...

Your ideas are great and the photos are fabulous. Jim and I installed solar panels last November. We're glad we did. Your post has inspired me to do some other things.

Cobalt Violet said...

Thank you for the comments! Lots of inspiration my little buddy, Benjamin!
Peace!

KathyA said...

Wonderful!!
I think we sometimes forget how full of wonder the world is.

Theresa said...

This is great. I did an earth day post too. Happy to be your blogger friend.

Ruthie Redden said...

I love the lessons you learnt from your nephew, sometimes it takes a child to show open our eyes to the world. Inhabitat is such a great site x