Meditation: An Egret and the Gulf Oil Spill

June 9th, 2010 · 8 Comments · Be a Mindful Activist, Beyond Gotham

To whom does the Earth belong? If you have any doubt about it, spend time at a wildlife refuge. Even 15 minutes, let alone a couple of hours, at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey tell the answer: The Earth belongs to all creatures, not just man.

Hundreds of sandpipers gather in one spot. An osprey arises from a nest, its wing span leaving me awed. A red-winged blackbird alights gently near us on a tall stalk of grass. These scenes occur amid total quiet during an exploration along the Wildlife Drive, an unpaved 8.5-mile road through the refuge.

For miles all we can see are birds, around the fields, ravines, marshes, and water on a green expanse that fills the horizon in every direction. We hear no other sounds except birds – chirping, singing, warbling, tweeting, flitting, and squawking. We become silent, so as to take in every bit of it, listening to the bird sounds filling the air entirely. It’s mesmerizing and miraculous.

In the Forsythe Wildlife Refuge’s 47,000 acres, birds outnumber humans. On the foggy May afternoon of our visit we see hundreds and hundreds of shorebirds as well as other birds – and fewer than a dozen people. This math speaks a deep truth: I contemplate how the world belongs to all creatures. It doesn’t belong to only the humans who construct massive cities and sprawling suburbs that gobble up the land. We as a species must learn to walk and live gently upon a planet that we share with them. Many do this already; many more must follow. We must know deeply how our actions affect the creatures’ lives…and live accordingly.

Osprey Over Nest, Edwin Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge

An osprey appears to feed its young at a nest.

Riding on the Wildlife Refuge at slower than 10 mph affords time to look at individual birds. I see a single egret, white, beautiful, and graceful against the green of the marshlands. Since that day at the Forsythe Wildlife Refuge, the sight of that bird keeps returning to my mind. I think of its beauty.

The Message in The Images

I’ve meditated on that image of the single egret as I’ve watched the horrors for our Earth and the sea unfolding each day in the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill. I compare this life-filled image of a beautiful white bird, at peace in a refuge and thriving, with others that millions of us have seen – for example, brown pelicans, captured this past week on Grand Island, La., that are covered in oil from the spill. The oily brown ooze drenches the birds’ entire bodies. Other photos, which AP photographer Charlie Riedel captured, show birds in thick oily muck on a beach on Louisiana’s East Grand Terre Island, including one that can only be recognized as a bird because of its projecting beak. It’s heartbreaking.

Egret, Edwin Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge

An egret stands in the marshlands of the Forsythe Wildlife Refuge.

Pelicans Covered In Oil, Grand Island

Oil from the spill covers these brown pelicans. (Photo Credit: International Bird Rescue Research Center)

The contrast of these images says much about us as people and about our responsibility to the Earth and its creatures. In one photo is a bird living fully upon an Earth where people are acting as stewards. In the others are birds whose lives are threatened by humans’ willful selfishness and lack of care.

At a moment in time looking at the egret, I realized our interdependence, its dependence upon me, and my dependence upon it. Our Earth is strong yet fragile, personified by the bird. We must treat it lovingly.

Many of us feel rage at BP’s reportedly willful carelessness and wrongdoing. A single company that disregards environmental care, covers up its actions, and lies is an extension of the worst of our human nature – greed, dishonesty, arrogance. We have known for decades that our dependence on oil is dangerous. And, as companies dig deeper and farther in the oceans, it has become more threatening to the Earth and its seas because the industry has done comparatively little research and development into technology to deal with spills. We create institutions and companies that reflect the best and worst in us.

We as individuals bear responsibility, too, in the way we live each day. Exploring that wildlife refuge, I realized how interconnected it is with the waters of the Gulf and how my actions are interconnected with it. Let us hope it is not too late to change our course and fully embrace clean energy, a solution that awaits our will and wisdom. We each must take steps to help relieve the suffering of the people and creatures in the Gulf region.

We can all decide to live in a gentler way that demands and takes less from the Earth. As the author Tony Robbins says, “A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken a new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.” If we do not take action, it is like someone sitting in a dark room doing nothing. As we see in the Gulf, the casualties will continue to be our Earth and the creatures living upon it, and we will not escape the consequences.

The Divine has given us a gift of life around us in countless ways and in awesome beauty. When we see something beautiful, we may want to stop and ask how it is that we have this gift and what it means in our lives. The solitary egret in a New Jersey marshland and the bird on the islands in Louisiana covered in oil – both are us. We must listen to what they tell us.

Further Links

The BP Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill: New York Times Resources

International Bird Rescue

Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge

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8 Comments so far ↓

  • Esther Pla

    We have known we must reduce our dependency on oil but we have done very little to make this a reality. There are many Americans that support/ed offshore drilling as a way to reduce our dependency on OPEC….now we all know what can happen.

    I am a part of the problem – as painful as it is to own that – I know this is a truth. So the question I must ask myself is now what – what do I do to change? How can I make a difference?

  • Susan DeMark

    You put the questions very well, Esther.

    I feel much the same way. I’ve never supported offshore drilling. I back and donate to groups and candidates who are working to bring about renewable energy. I support a lot of what Tom Friedman has been writing in his New York Times columns for years about ending oil dependency and making renewable energy and green technology a reality. (Here’s a recent example.) I use mass transit a lot. I buy local and support local farmers (though probably not enough), in hopes of lessening the energy it takes to bring food to our table.

    And, I’ve sought to write about and promote sustainable architecture.

    Still, in my daily life I feel like I am taking steps that are too small to save the planet. The Gulf oil spill has brought home that I am not proactive enough about saving energy and working even more for change in our country and world, and I plan to do more.

    Like you, I am asking even more: Now what?

    Susan

  • jean

    You stated my feeling exactly. Well-written post!

  • Mike

    In a way good news may come from this. Maybe we’ll get soooo tired of stuff like this and the damage it does we’ll put more pressure on having greener energy.

  • Susan DeMark

    Mike,

    I hope and pray you are right. I believe in humanity’s power to learn from errors, though this one has such enormous costs. I can envision a day at least a half-century from now when we — mostly if not totally — live on green energy, and people look back on the bad old days of oil.

    Thanks,
    Susan

  • Susan DeMark

    Jean,

    Thank you very much. I’m glad that I’ve caught something that you and others are feeling.

    In the spirit of mindfulness,
    Susan

  • Santhan

    I was searching for something beautiful that has resulted from the spill. I discovered beauty in your post, the comments and the sense of responsibility many of us are taking for the spill. We’re not all raging and pointing fingers. Instead, we are asking meaningful questions and looking deeper into our selves for solutions.

    I think we’ve gone far past the stage of where a slow and gradual change towards a sustainable lifestyle may be a solution to the critical situation our world is in. Slow gradual change is not the fix. It’s too late for that.

    Right now, as in today, as in this year our hope lies in radical change. It’s no longer about sustainable business and sustainable ways. It’s now about restoration. What we do and how we act must be more than sustainable. Our way of living must restore and heal.

    I see hope in community. I think the best thing we can do right now, if we are not actively and directly involved in the movement of radically changing our system, is to pull out of our suburban/urban ways of living and create or join zero impact sustainable communities that are healing and revitalizing the land they form on.

    Mama Earth can heal very very quickly if we help her.

  • Susan DeMark

    Santhan,

    Thank you. Your comment is a beautiful and inspiring one. You are right — no half measures will do.

    In terms of restoration, many people and groups are endeavoring to do just that. One case in point: Groups like Riverkeeper in the Hudson River Valley are working to restore the Hudson River to a healthy river after years of industrial dumping of PCBs that contaminated the river. And they are having good success.

    Farmers who employ sustainable methods are doing much to heal the Earth. Sustainable means to harvest in ways that do not deplete resources, and thus we leave them for the next generation. In a world of agribusiness, this is hard for farmers to do…but many are doing so against the odds.

    Ultimately, human settlement based on the use of the automobile will be seen as catastrophic, and we will change it. I have tried to live in communities and cities where I can walk.

    We must make radical change. Any suggestions of yours or notes about which communities you admire/live in would be helpful.

    I agree: Our Earth can heal if we help her to do so.

    Very well-stated and thought-provoking. May your thoughts help lead others, including myself, to more action.

    In the spirit of mindfulness,
    Susan

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