Looking Deeply

 "When you wake up and you see that the Earth is not just the environment, the Earth is us, you touch the nature of interbeing. And at that moment you can have real communication with the Earth....We have to wake up together. And if we wake up together, then we have a chance. Our way of living our life and planning our future has led us into this situation. And now we need to look deeply to find a way out, not only as individuals but as a collective, a species."  from Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet by Thich Nhat Hanh.

I've been stirred by hints of spring this past week, and it has motivated me to start making plans. I've ordered seeds, shrubs and trees. I've researched how best to get more fertility into my garden soil, and how to get my soil tested. And motivated by Thich Nhat Hanh's encouragement to look deeply, I started exploring the whole phenomenon of soil, what it is made of, how we know healthy soil, how soil evolved in the first place. This just led me deeper. I researched how the earth's crust was formed, which led me to explore the makeup of our earth deep deep under the surface that we see. And that led me further into the formation of the solar system and our own planet. With the human race seeming to have lost its way, I was looking for answers in the roots of our shared history. 

The time frame around the formation and evolution of our planet is mind-boggling. When we read "billions of years", or "hundreds of billions", it's very hard to take it in. But long, long, long ago our sun formed, and then gradually clumps of matter colliding in the area around the sun grew to have enough mass to acquire a gravitational field and held together. The earth was one of these conglomerations of matter. Early on, it was extremely hot molten magma. But over a few hundred million years, it started to cool. The heavier elements sank to the bottom (the inside of the earth globe) and the lighter elements stayed on top in a shallow layer. Eventually this layer cooled enough to be solid. 

At first the atmosphere around our planet was made of only hydrogen and helium. But we kept colliding with asteroids that left parts of their makeup here, and this is how water came into the mix. Volcanoes also erupted through the surface, and this too added gases to the atmosphere including H20. Eventually oceans began to take shape with higher land surrounding them. And in these bodies of water the first life developed! Then, after more billions of years, some bacteria evolved so they could photosynthesize, and oxygen was a by-product!! Life began to explode into a plethora of forms, and we and our earth relatives are the result.

When I look out the window or go on a walk, I am seeing the surface of the earth. I seldom see in my mind's eye the round planet, or the thick layers underneath the "crust". It's a little mind-blowing to realize that at the center of our beloved home it is still hot molten metal, in layers much much  thicker than our thin crust. Only occasionally are we reminded of this when volcanoes erupt, or when we visit Yellowstone and witness hot springs and steam coming out of the ground. Yet we are living on a complex layered ball moving through space around the sun, a tiny dot in the universe. With our sophisticated natural science, it would seem that we would be more aware of these facts than our far ancestors. Yet our lives are so complicated and mostly devoted to things removed from nature, that probably the Neanderthal was actually more aware of our place in the cosmos. 

I think this is enough for one post. Next time I'll go more specifically into soil, an exciting and fascinating subject deserving of space all for itself. I'll just share below a poem I wrote this week about our far, far ancestors.

Far Back Relations

Going back, back, back

thousands of years in earth time.

Flowering plants fill the valleys.

Small and larger land mammals wander.

Birds build nests on upper branches, fish dart

under the surface of ponds and rivers.

Day and night come and go. 

Earth blooms with richness, wild and exuberant.

As time travelers, we visit a long ago scene.

Through the night landscape shines a flickering light.

Moving closer, across the canyon floor,

a wide cave door glows bright,

revealing a family group of our ancestors

squatting around the fire,

sparks spraying out into the darkness

and the strong aroma of roasting meat swirling in the air.

Watching from the shadows

we can see nods, touches, the sharing of food,

and what may pass for a smile.

Not so different from our own time on a quiet night.

A far simpler world, unsullied by machines,

yet the same needs are filled around the fire:

warmth, food, shelter, companionship.

Not so different after all.