Earth Day 2026 - See yourself anew
Take a moment with me. Find a comfortable place to sit. Place one hand, your choice, in front of you. Look at that hand. What do you see? Now as you breathe, begin to open and close that hand. Find a rhythm that matches your breath. As you inhale, the breath you take is providing oxygen to your blood. This vital mechanism is powering the life within you. Your mind, your physical brain, is supported by the oxygen in your breath. Your intent to move your hand is only possible with your breath. Your nervous system is communicating your intent through its intricate network of tiny fibres that are passing electrical signals that carry your intent.
With every movement of your hand, your breath is allowing you to make that movement. Your body is a vehicle for your intent. Now, pause for a moment and consider: where does your breath come from? We know we breathe oxygen, and we know this comes from the trees and the plants, but how often do you really take a moment to reflect on that? You are intimately connected, through your breath, with the whole field of life around you. You share your breath with the plants, the trees, the algae, and the moss. You give and receive in the cycle of life that is the breath of the Earth.
This breath is powered by light, the light of the sun. The sun we see in the sky and the light it produces is the driving force that creates the air we breathe. The movement of your hand is connected to your breath. Your breath is connected to the plants and the trees. The plants and the trees are connected to the sun by the light that touches them. On a logical level we know this to be true; science have proved it. Yet in knowing this, we often live completely unaware of the wonder of this interconnection. This is a thread of life reaching far beyond our mind and body. A thread that is woven into the field of life around us.
We see our lives as ordinary and sometimes even worthless. But we share the dance of life with everything around us that breathes, that moves, that lives. The sun is part of something bigger. Our solar system does not simply hang limply in empty space. The movement of each planet is interdependent with every other planet in our solar system, as fields of gravity interact with the sun. And our solar system is just a small part of a wider galactic field of movement and energy. Each piece is related to every other piece. This interdependence between all life stretches far beyond what we can see. And yet, some force animates this whole field, bringing the potential of life on Earth into being. This life we see, that we experience, can only exist in connection to everything else.
So, breathe and move your hand again, look at it anew. See now the miracle that you are a part of. See how nothing is “just” ordinary. The same life force that animates everything you see on this Earth is in you too. You could not exist if you were separate from it. Take a moment to experience the majesty of what it means to share this connection with all things. Make a promise to yourself that, when you remember, you will take a step back and see with eyes of wonder and curiosity how amazing the world around you is, and how you are an inseparable part of all that you see. On this Earth Day, remember you are Earth; hold the entirety of this planet in your heart, and make sure that you are there too. With love…