Marble Meets Trash

The Marble Meets Trash

The marble asks, ” What is this?”

Something not animal or vegetable or mineral tossed up on the sand.  White, not soft. The fragrance is foreign.

Okay, it’s not the first trash that we’ve seen on the beach, but the first bit of garbage that this particular marble, this elegant small blue orb has found itself in such close proximity … and he doesn’t like it.  It saddens him. He senses something so innately wrong – but just what is it?

We sit quietly, watching the waters and pondering the Styrofoam, nemesis of seabirds, turtles, fish and crustaceans.

So many things come to mind.  The trash ‘island’ in the midst of the Pacific, it’s recently discovered match in Atlantic.  The photograph of the pelican’s dead body – filled with human refuse.  Dead at our hands – without any one of us touching him physically.

The beach clean-ups in both my home towns of Laguna Beach (CleanWatersNow) and Loreto, BCS (Loreto Pride – Eco Alianza).  Hands and hearts grunging in the muck.  Collecting and clearing what others can’t seem to consciously deal with.

It’s GARBAGE for heaven’s sake.  Wake up (okay, if you’re reading this post you are already awake) and use the trash can.

I admit to frustration.  My heart breaks when I encounter seals wearing bits of fish line or net, gulls and pelicans with refuse trapped in their beaks or tangled on their legs.  Another photograph – one of an Arctic tern – one of my favorite migratory birds – wearing a plastic bag collar.  The result of a dive for a ‘fish’ that turned out to be floating refuse, now wrapped around it’s neck – a threat to its flight and feeding.

My heart/head know that the only real answer lies in education – an expansion of the consciousness that to protect the seas is to protect and support all life on our tiny blue spinning planet.  That’s part of the marble’s journey … a growing voice of reason.

Drifting …..

Drifting Marble

The marble sits atop a piece of driftwood, in this case, likely carried from the desert canyons to the sea by recent rain storms that pummeled Baja.  Temporarily, it’s been cast by the sea via tidal swings, back on the shore.

The wood reminds me of other refuse, land-locked trash dumped by humans, that makes its way to the sea during storms.  This happens – not just in Baja – but in LA, San Francisco, Ventura, Texas, Alabama, Florida .. globally.  Every country and/or state that has a border with waters that swirl across our planet, has the need to put into place, protections for our common good.  Not just ours, but the creatures that inhabit the oceans and seas of Earth.  This is shared territory, bound between us by currents that pass effluents and pollutants from shore to shore, depths to shallows, north to south, and east to west.

The oceans have long been considered an amazing filter, but we humans – the biggest producer of toxins – have pushed the ocean’s health to the brink of collapse.  It is long past time to make environmental education a core curriculum in school system on the globe.

Mother of Pearl

The shells cradle the Marble, not unlike the way in which each of us needs to cradle the earth.

Care for her, pay attention to her needs. Treat her with respect and honor.

I like the way the blue light reflects off the shimmering surface.

Planet light – Life light. The collective reflection of all or our lives.

Beach Day w/the Marble

Walked the rocky shoreline of Crystal Cove and photographed the Marble in various locations and settings.

Rocky faces, tide pools, even a chunk of styrofoam. In every instance, mental notes were made in relation of the small blue orb to the larger planetary concept. How do we change up perceptions and habits?

How do we protect environments that are cherished?

How do we instruct the next generation to do and be better than we have? So many questions ..

The walk continues the conversation and quest for answers.

Seagrass

Marble with Seagrass

“Seagrass is a shallow, saltwater flowering plant. Seagrass systems rank with mangroves and coral reefs in terms of providing shelter, food, and water purifying. Seagrass is important habitat for fish and other species…. “

To learn more, log on to The Ocean Foundation Website section on seagrass

(from TOF website)

Lunch with the Marble

Mexican Marble

Lunch with the Marble.  A small outdoor ‘eatery,’ Burro Primavera in San Juanico, BCS.  A fishing village, San Juanico can well be said to be off the grid.  City electrical is generated by wind and solar and is in limited quantity.  No new contracts are currently being issued … New construction on lots without contracts must rely on their own solar/wind plants, backed up by generators.

My friends, Cynthia and Cal Wagstaff, built a home that is entirely solar powered with battery back-up.  There’s a strangely satisfying feeling of not pulling anything from a smoke-belching power plant, or river clogging dam.  It’s okay to live with less consumption, and to monitor use creates a constant kind of quiet consciousness about energy usage.

I had placed the marble on the brightly colored tablecloth striped with rays of the same sunlight that was charging up my friends house.  So many ways to conserve.  How to engage more of them in my own lifestyle?

Somehow, living closer to the land seems more and more intelligent.

Travels of the Blue Marble

Serendipity.  The spontaneous response to random events.  I was sipping vino tinto at a pre-conference dinner in Loreto, BCS, Mexico.  Wallace J. Nichols of Grupo Tortugero dropped a small blue marble into my hand and whispered, “Everything will be revealed later.”

The marble for Wallace, represents our own spinning blue planet, and by placing it in each of the party-goers hands, he had asked each one to add another level of care-taking to our home, the Earth.

The caveat goes further, in a kind of play-it-forward fashion.  Gift the marble that you hold.  Share the wisdom of conservation and stewardship with others.

Mark Spalding, President of The Ocean Foundation, and I exchanged marbles.  But that’s a far cry from spreading the word.  We are both already devotees.  Mark has dedicated his life to finding ways to protect the oceans.   I have always believed that water cures anything, heals me.   Water makes and keeps me whole.  I understand on an intuitive level what clean water and a healthy planet means.

I have transformed this gifted marble into a tool to explore any and all aspects of my blue home planet.

Can’t wait to see where this takes me.

Shoreline Marble

Blue Marble on the edge of the Pacific

Beach walks.  The marble rolls from my hand toward the incoming tide.  I watch carefully, not ready to relinquish this lovely blue sphere to the tidal surge.  The sphere pauses at the edge of a sand line.  I think of continents, distant places that are washed by the same salty seas.

How often do we fail to rememeber that we are intrinsically linked? We are not isolated humans, but rather, a grand parade of life forms moving a rhythm across our shared home planet.  What happens in one place does affect another.  One drop of oil in a glass of water changes that water forever.  Naturally bubbling – one issue.  Man inserted – another altogether.