Earth- our paradise

A long time ago, people believed that the earth was the center of the universe, and that the sun, moon and stars moved around it. They were also sure the earth was flat! They thought if a ship sailed out to sea far enough, it would go over the edge of the world, fall off into space, and be lost forever. They believed that dragons and other strange monsters lived in the depths of the oceans. Today we know of that nurtures life. It is our only home. We know all these things, but are we really wiser than our ancestors? They worshipped the earth and the wonders of creation. We exploit on neglect these wonders. We have ignored what our own experience and science tells us. We have even forgotten the traditional wisdom of ancient scriptures. Let us remind ourselves of some of these.

The earth is home to all of us including plants and animals. We call planet mother earth because she looks after us and gives us all that we need to live and grow-air, water, sunshine, food and shelter.

Just like we respect our parents and elders, we mu8st also respect mother earth. We must look after mother earth and everything that she gives us.

Rice food

A long time ago all things were bigger and better than they are today- fruits, vegetables, grain, even people and animals. In fact the grains of rice were so big that a single grain of rice was all people could eat at a time!

In those days, people did not have to work very hard. When the grains of rice were ripe, they just fell down on their own and went rolling into the villages to be eaten. An old woman and her daughter were building a storehouse for rice. One big grain of rice came rolling in before the building was ready. The old woman became angry when she saw it. She kicked the rice and said, ``could you not wait in the field till we were ready? Why do you bother us when we are not ready?’’

The grain broke into a thousand tiny pieces and said, ``we have always been good to you. We give food to eat. We try to make things easy for you. But in return you kick us. From now on, we will not come to you. You will have to come and gather us. You will have to cook, and eat a lot of rice to fill your stomach’’.

From that day onwards, rice grains have been small people has had to gather grain from the fields and carry in to their stores and houses.

Understand

People love and respect the earth all over the world. Some people even worship it and celebrate many festivals to show their respect for the earth. Can you say why? It is because the earth has provided humans like a mother provides for her children. She has given us all that we need- air, water, land and soil, plants and animals. If we do not look after all these things they will get spoilt.

If we dirty our rivers, we will have no water to drink. We are dependent on the earth. So let us respect the earth and be grateful to her. Let us take care of her and pray that she keeps caring for us.