I know the media is going to be hitting us hard with “save the planet” this week — after all, it IS Earth Day! But there is a reason we seem to dedicate the month of April to the Earth. You don’t have to get too deep into the global warming or natural resource issues to realize the Earth is something we should respect and be grateful for. I’ll let the experts weigh in on the “real issues.” Me? I’ll just make sure I smile at the small stuff. For example, I’m thankful for Mother Earth because…

There are few things more beautiful than running through the grass barefoot.

Summer wouldn’t be nearly as sweet without fresh squeezed lemonade and juicy watermelon.

She paints the backdrop of life! Just think of how many pictures you’ve taken posing in front of beautiful mountains, glistening oceans or budding trees! Without her rolling hills, rushing streams and fields dotted with blooming flowers, our environment would be bleak and flat — lifeless.

Mud pies should be a part of every kid’s diet

Without her, we wouldn’t have incredible songs like: What a Wonderful World, Take Me Home Country Roads, Ocean of Noise, One Sweet World, California Dreamin’, Earth Song, Fields of Gold, Gardenia — I can go on and on…(for my Musical nerds – A Bit of Earth, Wick, Edelweiss)

Digging a hole to China just wouldn’t seem as fun

I can go on and on AND ON! But I want to hear YOUR reasons. Why are you thankful for Mother Earth? Are you going to make sure you get outside and play today?

I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.  ~John Muir, 1913, in L.M. Wolfe, ed., John Muir, John of the Mountains:  The Unpublished Journals of John Muir, 1938

Take nothing but pictures.
Leave nothing but footprints.
Kill nothing but time.
~Motto of the Baltimore Grotto, a caving society

And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.  ~William Shakespeare