As we celebrate Mother’s Day this month and our theme of Women’s Wellness, I’m naturally contemplating our universal Mother Earth, as well. Why, I wondered, do we call our earthly home mother and why does the moniker feel appropriate, right and suitable?

We know our planet is a magnificent, beautiful, multifaceted and perfectly tuned, self-sustaining gift orchestrated by God, the master Creator. Researching the usage further, I started where all scholarly searches begin; I Googled it. The consensus, while unsurprising, still gives cause to pause, reminding us of all the good reasons to love, cherish, honor and respect the Earth as we do human mothers. I found a near-universal focus on the life-giving and nurturing aspects of nature, similar to the wat any good mother cares for her children.

I particularly liked the comment that Mother Earth is 75 percent water, has a fabulous change of seasons, sustains trillions of life forms, both human and nonhuman, and yet still manages to maintain her fabulous figure. There is much to be learned from nature’s lessons. Mother Earth knows what to do and when she needs to do it. Perfection can’t be hurried, and it all miraculously comes together when she is ready to make her debut.

It’s not our job to question her or try to tell her how to run her life. What great harm we cause and chaos we create when we presume to add our two cents, thinking we can interfere with the natural order of things. Humanity is slowly coming to understand that to share this place harmoniously, we must love our mother, embrace her order and authority and seek answers from the source.

So what can we do this Mother’s Day to honor our Mother Earth? We can all:

• Learn more about local environmental issues. Good places to start are Green Source DFW (GreenSourceDFW.org), Dallas Sierra Club (DallasSierraClub.org), Texas Campaign for the Environment (TexasEnvironment.org) and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF.org).

• Share a helpful article or discuss a topic with parents, children, friends or coworkers.

• Identify an issue we are passionate about or that directly affects us, find out who is already working on it; and then join the conversation or organization.

• Call elected state or federal representatives to make our opinion known.

• Sign online petitions to make our opinion count (start with Change.org).

Heartfelt thanks go to our readers for all you do every day to make to make our Dallas-Ft. Worth and North Texas communities better places to live. We are glad you continue to consider Natural Awakenings your go-to resource for green, healthy and sustainable living. This month, we particularly note the excitement of using local Eco ATMs to collect used cell phones and following Texan Michael Combs’ adventure driving his Ford Fusion Energi hybrid car on one tank a year.

This Mother’s Day may we all show and tell all the women in our lives that have loved, nurtured and provided for us how much we appreciate them.

Mother’s Day blessings,

Bernice Butler, Publisher