Happy Earth Day!

For Earth Day gathering at confluence of Nechako & Fraser Rivers, Cottonwood Island Park (off River Road near log home building business) 5:30 pm today!

“Sometimes if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known.” (Winnie the Pooh)

The world, Canada, BC, northern BC are facing many environmental crises. Our natural world, the world we have all come to know and love, is constantly under threat. Dams, oil pipelines and spills, leaching mine tailings ponds, fish farms, pesticide residues, massive clear cuts, plastics, pollution and wastefulness are some among many risks resulting from the way we have come to live, that currently threaten the well being of our waterways and life on planet Earth.

Today we join in solidarity with Alexandra Morton, the fish biologist on the west coast who today started her walk from Sointula to Victoria in time for Mother’s Day. She walks with other concerned British Columbians in defense of the wild sockeye salmon who swim these very waters to reach their home creeks every year. As we are all aware, there numbers are in precipitous decline. We join with Alexandra and First Nations communities & other concerned British Columbians all along the salmon’s migratory route who are speaking out against fish farms and in defense of these wild fish who are so vital to so much of our environment – the bears, the wolves, the eagles, the forests, the people, the very web of life depend on the salmon.

Today we join in solidarity with the people from across the world gathered at the “World People’s Conference on Climate Change & the Rights of Mother Earth” in Cochabamba Bolivia to discuss and formulate a plan to protect the rights of Mother Earth.

And finally, we join with all people of the world who are celebrating Earth Day and the great gifts of life, joy and sustenance that this remarkable planet provides to us. We today recognize the sacred in all that the Earth provides to us and honour the necessity of respecting and supporting this sacred. We all in this together, all part of the Earth’s web of life at this very moment in time.

And to the rivers, the mighty Nechako and Fraser, we give thanks for all that you give to us, as you flow through, sustain and cleanse these lands.

In the words of Chuang Tzu, Chinese Taoist philosopher, “I know the joy of fishes in the river through my own joy as I go walking along the same river.”