This morning I walked at Big Willow Park in Minnetonka. I wanted to see how the drought in Minnesota has affected the flow of Minnehaha Creek. After the weekend rains (thank you! thank you! for the rain!) the air was humid, the path was still wet, and I felt like I was walking in a beautiful green gigantic steam bath.

Turning Up the Heat

Though it was a steamy walk, it was so beautiful and astonishing to see how green everything still is despite the drought. We are truly blessed to live here in the midst of all this beauty.

Though the creek was lower than I’ve ever seen it, there was still water in it. The flow was imperceptible until I reached a section of the creek with a little falls over rocks. There I could see that the creek was still slowly flowing, not just sitting in stagnant pools. Parts of the marsh around the creek were completely devoid of standing water. And tall weeds one doesn’t usually see filled in where water used to stand. Though I have often seen people canoeing in Minnehaha Creek, you couldn’t canoe it now. There isn’t enough water in it to float a canoe.

I’ve also been noticing that leaves are turning bright fall colors earlier than most years. Sumac leaves are turning brilliant orange and red. Cottonwood leaves are turning yellow. And many oak leaves are turning brown and beginning to fall. I think it is probably the dry weather we’ve been having that is causing the early colors and leaves to drop. But it’s also been a really hot summer here, much hotter than I remember experiencing in most of my 35 plus years living in Minnesota.

Wishing for a do-over

I did something to my back on Friday and I’ve been moving very slowly since then. It was one of those unexpected, simply leaning forward to put something in the dishwasher movements, that turned into, “Oh my God, what just happened!” I hate it when things like that happen seemingly “out of the blue.”

I remember thinking at the time I hurt my back, “I wish I could rewind my life back just 10 seconds and do it differently.”

Wouldn’t that be lovely, to have instant do-overs?

I wish! But here I am, and here you are, however you are feeling today, and the only thing we can do is to learn from our past and try to move forward differently. Though if you are like me, it takes more than one painful lesson often, to really learn to do things differently. I know that I need to bend at the hips, not simply curve my back over, but I forget again and again. When I am not fully mindful, which is most of the time, I forget to move in ways that protect my low back.

Unfortunately we humans often fail to learn from our mistakes. Or we pretend that things are not as they are. How long have we been hearing about the dangers of climate change? And how long have most of us blithely continued to live as if it would never happen?

“Here we are, the most clever species ever to have lived. So how is it we can destroy the only planet we have?”
― Jane Goodall

Learning the Hard Way

It is clear that things are heating up, faster than expected and we are seeing the consequences of climate change more and more each day. But still we humans, who are the cause of climate change, persist in behaving as if everything is okay even when we recognize that things are not okay. Though I don’t have any easy answers about what we can do individually, I think that talking about climate change frequently, making the changes we each can personally make, and demanding that businesses and governments respond as well is crucial.

What would happen if we treated climate change like the emergency it really is? Can you imagine every country in the world mobilizing it’s will and resources to fight climate change in the way that countries mobilized to fight World War II?

“Because, underneath all of this is the real truth we have been avoiding: climate change isn’t an “issue” to add to the list of things to worry about, next to health care and taxes. It is a civilizational wake-up call. A powerful message—spoken in the language of fires, floods, droughts, and extinctions—telling us that we need an entirely new economic model and a new way of sharing this planet. Telling us that we need to evolve.”
― Naomi Klein

What would a new economic model and way of sharing this planet look like?

Showing Respect for the Earth

I don’t like to think of the efforts we need to make as some kind of war. It seems to me that instead of conquering or fighting we need to listen to and learn from the earth and indigenous people who treat the earth with reverence and respect. Modern industrialized life is toxic to the planet. And in many ways it is toxic to optimal human development as well.

“Each one of us matters, has a role to play, and makes a difference. Each one of us must take responsibility for our own lives, and above all, show respect and love for living things around us, especially each other.”
― Jane Goodall, Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey

We are creative beings with infinite imaginations. Let us turn our minds and will towards mending what we can and influencing change within our circles of influence.

“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”
― Jane Goodall

May you walk in beauty.

Note: Photos in today’s post made at Big Willow Park this morning.