Nature is our mother. Because we live cut off from her, we get sick. Some of us life live in boxed called apartment, very high above the ground. Around us are only cement, metal, and hard things like that. Our fingers do not have a chance to touch the soil; we don’t grow lettuce anymore. Because we are so distant from our Mother earth, we become sick. That is why we need to go out from time to time and be in nature. It is very important. We and our children should in touch again with Mother earth. In many cities, we cannot see trees – the color green is entirely absent from our views.

One day, I imaged a city where there was only one tree left. The tree was still beautiful, but very much alone, surrounded by building, in the center of the city. Many people were getting sick, and most doctors did not know how to deal with the illness. But one very good doctor knew the causes of the sickness and gave this prescription to each patient : “ Every day, take the bus and go to the center of the city to look at the tree. A you approach it, practice breathing in and out, and when you get there, hug the tree, breathing in and out for fifteen minutes, while you look at the tree, so green, and smell its back, so fragrant. If you do that, in a few weeks you will feel much better.”

The people began to feel better, but very soon there were so many people rushing to the tree that they stood in line for miles and miles. You know that people of our time do not have much patience, so standing three or four hours to hug the tree was too much, and they rebelled. They organized demonstrations in order to make a new law that each person could only hug the tree for five minutes, but of course that reduce the time for healing. And soon, the time was reduced to one minutes, and the chance of being healed by our mother was lost.

We could be in that situation very soon if we are not mindful. We have to practice awareness of each thing we do if we ant to save our Mother Earth, and ourselves and our children as well. For example, when we look into tour garbage, we can see lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, and flowers. When we throw a banana peel into the garbage, we are aware that it is a banana peel that we are throwing out and that it will be transformed into a flower or a vegetable very soon. That is exactly the practice of meditation.

一行禪師
Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step