Two major events are converging in my life.  One is the launch of my website TheEarthConnection.org., which I have created to inspire and strengthen people who love the earth.  The other is the return my husband and I are planning to our home on a mountain ridge in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.

           

I would like to explain why we are moving back to Virginia.  That way, you will also understand just what TheEarthConnection.org is about for me.

           

My husband Andy and I live in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  His work and our son’s education brought us here from Virginia six years ago.  While it has been two years since those endeavors were completed, we are still here.  We have a nice life in Albuquerque.   Our house is full of bright New Mexico sunshine.  And I am looking out our large picture window right now at the Sandia Mountains, with only a lovely red maple, pinyon pines, and birds at the feeder to obscure any of the mountain view.

 

            We have wonderful neighbors, and we have made good friends here.  Andy and I are part of a movie group.  And I am a member of two very engaging groups of women—one that delves into dreams, the other into literary classics.  We are well aware that there is a lot we will miss about our Albuquerque lives.   

           

But there is something even deeper calling us.  It is Supinlick Ridge in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, where Andy, our son, and I lived for a decade.  We loved the place so much that when we made our westward move, we didn’t sell our house.  Although we had no idea what the future held, we couldn’t part with the place.

           

Then last September, Andy and I returned to our Virginia home to clean up after some swinish tenants.  The place was in bad shape–damaged, overgrown, with trash of a surprising variety of types strewn all over the land.  But in what might have been a dispiriting setting, we were ecstatic!  Camping in our trashed house for a week, we felt so happy to be back in the woods on the mountainside! 

 

Every day for a week, we scrubbed, swept, and picked up trash.  We

also drank deeply of the nature that surrounded us.  I breathed in the forest’s heavenly autumn fragrance that I remembered so happily—the scent of sun on dried leaves.  The sounds of breezes, rustling the leaves on the trees, now faint, now louder, pleased me.  And the sight of a pileated woodpecker making its way easily along the valley made me smile with delight.  And then there were my daily meditations, sitting on the horizontal ‘bench’ portion of a living tree—the best church ever.

 

It is that place, the call of the earth to my spirit and to Andy’s, that is urging  us to leave our full life in Albuquerque.  And it is the nourishment and inspiration I find in that place that I want to bring to you when you visit TheEarthConnection.org. 

 

I have long known that the deep nourishment I derive from my contact with the natural world is essential to my well-being.  And I believe that all of us humans, whether we know it or not, can be nourished deeply by contact with nature–if we are open to it.  Nature is—well, our true nature.  We need to know that we are inseparable from it, that damage to the planet and its species hurts us too. 

 

When we take in the sustenance that Mother Nature so abundantly offers us, when we let our experience with nature strengthen us, we can gain the strength to act on the earth’s behalf, rather than let ourselves sink into despair at the enormity of the challenge.

 

So we need to do things that nourish our spirit, that awaken our sense of wonder, and that remind us that our birthright is a loving union with our planet.  If we can let this connection feed us deeply, we can gain the strength to deal with the environmental crisis that will be with us for the rest of our lives. 

 

And the project is enormous.  After all, humanity is not even headed in the right direction yet.  Our carbon emissions are still increasing, even though we know that survival depends on bringing emissions down steadily and significantly.

 

But if we are nourished by our love for the earth, by our awe of natural beauty, and by our delight in our experiences with the natural world, then we can gain the strength we need to put our shoulder to the wheel in these difficult times.

 

So I am returning to Virginia to experience that nourishment every day, to be filled by my surroundings–the green mountain vista, the storms that roll through the valley, the sounds of a whippoorwill on a summer night, the forest’s inviting walks.  What a balm to my spirit when all around me the wonders of nature are far more evident than humanity’s tinkerings.

 

As I go off to Virginia to nourish my soul, I am trying to do the same for you at TheEarthConnection.org.  I am working to create a place where you can reliably feel your own connection with nature, and where you can let Mother Earth nourish and strengthen you for the essential work of healing our planet.

 

–April Moore

This entry was posted on Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 10:45 am and is filed under Celebrating our beautiful Earth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.