Today’s the Spring Equinox, that’s right! Winter’s over and we can all tell each other, well done! We made it through the cold and dark, and here is our reward, longer sunny days, lush green and blossoms and sunrays filling up our batteries. Coincidentally, and maybe not so much, today is also International Forests Day, a day to celebrate the existence in our lives of trees, forests, jungles and that place in nature that harbours so much life and who allows us and our planet to breath clean air and thus to be fully alive, while Spring is something that concerns the Northern Hemisphere, forests and trees concern us all.
As a matter of fact, astronomically Spring started yesterday morning at sunrise, but traditionally we keep on celebrating the 21st.
Seasons, until very recently, were what regulated our lives no wonder in so many faiths and beliefs the Sun was perceived as a life-giving divinity. As Earth’s rotation and sunlight told us when to set on our migration for our nomadic ancestors and when to plant the fields for our farming foreparents, followed by harvest, celebration, storage and the cycle begins again, and again. That is also why so many cultures attribute specific spiritual and superstition meaning to the transition from winter to Spring, as faith and culture celebrations of life or vanquishing death happen in this month and that is no coincidence that life is celebrated when life starts or restarts its cycle. Are we so different really around this planet of ours?
So this calls for a celebration! And how are we going to celebrate this magnificent day? By talking a walk in a forest and give our gratitude, and here are some good reasons why:
- 1/5th of humanity livelihood and income depends on forests
- Forests territories provide 75% of fresh water supply for all our needs
- Forests absorb greenhouse gases, build more resilient landscapes, regulate water flow, improve soil quality, and are migratory corridors for both plants and animals.
Then we invite you too to honour our life companions since millions of years, trees by taking today a respectful walk in the woods nearer to you, renew that friendship and cooperation that has benefited us so much over the millenia, and perhaps think about how to pay back.
Wish you all a fantastic Equinox, and a fruitful and pleasant International Forest Day.