Pay attention

It doesn't have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch
a few words together and don't try
to make them elaborate, this isn't
a contest but the doorway
into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak....

~ Mary Oliver

I'm reading They Will Inherit the Earth by John Dear (2018).  He is basically saying, "Pay attention to Mother Earth," as in this quote:

"Defending Mother Earth in this time of unparalleled corporate greed, imperial military might, and human-made catastrophic climate change is a matter of life and death.  For some of us, death will come sooner rather than later, in the form of horrific storms, mudslides, floods, tornadoes, fires, and drought.  For others, death will come at the hands of the multinational corporations and their government-backed death squads who destroy the earth, steal its resources, crush the poor, and kill their advocates" (p. 60).

John Dear also writes:

"We have now become the ancient people who ate and drank and went about their business while Noah boarded his ark as the rains began to fall" (p. 48).

What's happening to us?

"The last few years have easily been the hottest on record.  Each year the record is broken all over again.  We have witnessed unprecedented hurricanes, tornadoes, superstorms, rainfall, floods, tsunamis, fires, and droughts.  The polar ice caps and glaciers are not just melting, they are disappearing.  The global temperature has now risen about one degree Celsius (over the last hundred years), and already drastic changes are under way" (pp. 45-46).

It has only gotten worse since this book was published in 2018.