I grew up having a love-hate relationship with our planet as a child. Earth fosters millions of species and is at least 4 billion years old. Life is always seen trying to prevail even with the slimmest chances and it is seen everywhere. But I felt it was still too small even when it was described to be considerably big.
For all of my childhood, I grew up moving through small apartments and rented houses. I sadly never got the experience of running in my backyard with the sprinklers on when I was young. The world was so big, yet it felt so small in my 5-year-old brain. As I grew, however, I realized the beauty of the Earth; even in my neighborhood, a place that seemed to have no life. I could see the butterflies passing through my area migrating to warmer weather. I could hear the pigeons cooing from the power lines. I could pet the stray cats waiting for a considerate being to take them in. I could take in all of these observations by simply going around. And it led me to look closer to God as well. For a little while, I started thanking God for all the animals I saw that day after my evening prayer. I, unfortunately, lost sight of this obsession after a few years, but its remains have still kept my love for life in the back of my mind.
It’s sad to say, ignorance is something that can not stay with you your whole life. And when I was in 5th grade, my class had begun its unit on climate change. When I first learned about the topic, I wasn’t really paying attention. I didn’t think it would affect me, or even that it was an actual thing. But as I understood more about it, I became aware that it is more than just a silly topic. Climate change is stressful. When the realization crept up on me I started hysterically crying thinking that everyone would die tomorrow. I know at the moment there is not much I as a singular person can do about the millions of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere, or the thousands of species losing their homes due to deforestation, extreme weather, or any of the other trillions of negative effects that humans are doing to our beautiful planet. Corinthians 1 says, “The Earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.” The little extra prayer that I did for 3 years every day when I was younger, I now have started doing again. Not for just all the little critters I saw that day but for the Earth’s future in 10 years. I pray that someone, in a laboratory or by mistake can help give a solution to this; to save our dear planet.
The Earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.
In the future, I hope that I can still live my life the way I want to. Not having to compromise my living conditions because humanity as of now can’t decide to work together. As Environmental Day approaches, I hope that more people continue to learn about climate change and what we can do together as a society to save our dear Earth.
