Spring is the easiest time of year to celebrate the earth because burgeoning beauty is everywhere. Our connection to our environment is heightened. For the first time in many months there is color in our gardens and in the trees. Birds flit between branches like sparks of blue, red, and yellow. Warmth and the promise of plenty begin with the newly powerful sunshine being absorbed by Earth. Energy from a hundred million miles away is being gathered by our planet and stoking the incubator of life. As a sort of an Earth Day prayer, we like to get down on our knees, dig our fingers into the warm April soil, and feel life regenerating in our hands.
The riot of gold finches buzzing around the house distract us momentarily from the sensual feel and scent of Earth. It is the commonest of wonders, but without it, there is nothing. The soil in our gardens is fueling those gold finches. The soil is stimulating the micros that create fertility. It is nourishing and supporting the roots of our grasses.
Out here on the Great Plains the roots and root hairs of plants sometimes burrow twenty feet deep and amount to miles in total length. The mass of unseen roots is the part of our perennial grasses and make up nearly 70% of the plant’s living volume. They pump the sun’s energy into the soil. They suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and sequester it inside the earth. They move water from below, sort the oxygen from hydrogen, and give us the very air that we breathe.
The respirator of all the Wild Idea Buffalo ranches is the soil and the grasses that the buffalo walk upon. We take soil very seriously out here. We work with Mother Earth to keep it healthy because the health of our buffalo and the meat that they produce depends on it. So turn you face to the April sun, breathe deep, and know that you have a reason to celebrate Earth Day. It is your mother’s special day. She is watching out for you!
3 comments
Dan, as always, your path around words is as mentally nutritious as the grasses that feed the buffalo which in turn feed all of us and help keep those grasses and the soil that allows the grasses to be healthy as well. Thanks so much. Love your efforts with the environment and the language.
Spring is the great awakening, there is power in the sun, music from the birds, a hundred shades of green…
I like Spring, generally means winter is over in the North Georgia Mountains. You are correct Dan, lots of things emerge in April that cheers the sole. Do you have a new book in the making? I need a good book to read.