When every day feels like a century, and every lifetime is quite a painful one, an old soul in their 30’s remembers youthful plans to move to the rainforest. There were too many years scraped by and deprived of my green family, The Trees. I had a list of what to pack for the journey. I planned for some sandwiches and water. I wouldn’t need shoes, just instincts. I do remember a lifetime when I did live there, long before they cut it down. Full of life, it was! Beautiful animals and fascinating plants. Colours and shapes and senses…everywhere! The jungle was alive itself, and her soul breathed for all of us.
The Jungle Book and The Baron in the Trees suited this long-limbed tree-climbing child. Travel photography was on my list of daydreams, and I practiced every day. My first tree dwellings were a success with tools and supplies tied to the higher branches, and me, safe and dry under the pine curtain designing my tree house. After a while, they noticed I was missing and I was yanked back into the airless box of dust and heavily-scented cleaners. A baby may be born healthy and strong, but modern homes, schools, and offices crumble our lungs and we reluctantly join the league of wheezing, sleepless dust bunnies.
New systems and ways of building need to include real air, but this means we need the basic right and resource of unpolluted air everywhere. What kind of air purifier could safely tackle the century of toxins hovering above and around us? You can’t merely vacuum up the clouds, seal them into the earth, and call it a day. The poison is engrained in the soil, water, air, and in us. Our cells are affected by pollution. It keeps moving in a loop. Many steps are needed. The termination of polluting systems and objects is vital. Plants are the enduring solution. Years ago, my thesis to preserve the rainforest cultures and wildlife through awareness was presented, but the coffee-in-hand crowd wasn’t listening, as they were too busy pondering more ways to sexually harass me. (A college review is coming up.) The answers are obvious, but they need to be implemented and nature preserved. Redesign the world to be healthy and sustainable. Get back to nature.
Although the ways of travelling are so much easier now (albeit stupidly pollutive), I haven’t been able to get there…to the land of leaves and green. Too much illness, caused by the pavement crowd, delayed me. And now…are there any leaves left? Humans, pollution must stop. Let the trees grow older than a hundred lifetimes. There are other ways of doing all of the silly things you like without harming the entire world’s ecosystems and life cycles. But, leave out the harmful things you think you need. You don’t need them; that was just your fear talking. Humans have forgotten that they are a small part of the puzzle. When a tree is cut down, the whole world feels it. You may not realize it like empaths do, but the loss is felt from the roots to the air, and we are less without it.
On mornings like these, when the rain soaks up the garden in a heavy hug, turning all in it a deep green, I remember my rainforest dreams…and I plant more seeds.
If I cannot move to the most natural places, I can make our place the most natural haven for wildlife and plants to live and grow, organic and unpolluted, and living all together. I draw the branches. I paint the trees. I collect and spread more seeds.
Grow green goodness all around you…and let the babies breathe…
Love, ~ Amor Milagre
