Earth Day - Celebrate!
We all share this beautiful planet we call Earth. Since 1970, each year on April 22, people from around the world come together to celebrate Earth Day, to discuss, learn, and take action on ways to protect our planet.
You can read about the story of the first Earth Day on https://www.thespruce.com/history-of-first-earth-day-1708813
A great way to honor this special day is through reading Earth-Friendly Books. Some of our favorites are:
Compost Stew by Mary McKenna Siddals and Ashley Wolff
Thank You, World by Alice McGinty and Wendy Anderson Halperin
I Love Our Earth / Amo nuestra Tierra by Bill Martin Jr.
He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands by Kadir Nelson
The EARTH Book by Todd Parr
The Whole Green World by Tony Johnston and Elisa Kleven
Take Care of the Earth Every Day (Kids Save the Earth) by Tammy Gagne
Gabby & Grandma Go Green by Monica Wellington
Of course we’ll celebrate Earth Day this week during Budding Buddhas yoga classes! We believe Earth Day and Yoga go hand in hand. We have fun with poses that celebrate nature, animals and the earth. Mountain Pose, Tree Pose, Butterfly Pose and Snake Pose to name a few. Kids Yoga is such a great way to introduce and educate children on how to make the world a better place.
The earth is what we have in common.
-- Wendell Berry
This weekend you’ll have dozens of ways to celebrate.
For Earth Day Events around Lower Westchester NY, check out the following link:
An Earth Day celebration can be very simple and take a few minutes or it can be more extensive and can take a few hours:
Volunteer to clean a park, nature center, or even a neighborhood.
(Google earth day volunteer opportunities in your area.)
Take a walk in nature and perhaps do a walking meditation….using your senses to notice the beautiful simplicity of your surroundings, to hear the sounds of nature, and to feel your feet touching the ground and notice how this feels.
Check out Jack Kornfields walking meditation: https://jackkornfield.com/walking-meditation-2/
Perhaps you don’t have a lot of time so your Earth Day celebration can be as simple as using one of our senses to notice something we see everyday but looking at it in a different way.
Why not have your child pick up a handful of dirt, look at it feel it, and talk about why dirt is so important.
Or even going outside, standing near a tree in your yard or in a park and touch the bark. Look at it mindfully, then using the tree as support, place one hand on the tree and bring your outside foot up to tree pose.
Last but not least...
Always (year round!) try to reduce, reuse, and recycle!
