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Picking a leaf off the ground and
contemplating it as an object in and of itself is very inspiring. Its
shape and color, the way it feels in your hand, its delicate veins and
the stem that once held it fast to the branch of a tree — all of these
qualities reveal a leaf to be a miniature work of natural art. As we
contemplate this small object more deeply and consider where it came from
and what purpose it has served, we find that the leaf is one small but
essential part of a system that harnesses the energy of the sun, plumbs
the depths of the Earth, and in the process brings into being the oxygen
many living things rely on.
A leaf transforms the elements of its
environment — sunlight, carbon dioxide, rain — into nourishment for its
tree. This beautiful, nearly weightless, ephemeral piece of nature is a
vital conduit to the branch that is a conduit to the trunk that is a conduit
to the roots of the tree. The roots, in turn, draw nourishment from the
Earth to feed the trunk, the branches, and the leaves. The living beings
that inhale the oxygen that comes from this process exhale the carbon
dioxide that feeds the leaves through which the tree is fed. It is
difficult to know where one cycle ends and another one begins.
One of the many gifts that nature
offers us is a clear demonstration of the interdependence between all
living things. The person who exhales the carbon dioxide, the clouds that
produce the rain, the sun that gives light, the leaf that transforms all
these things into sustenance for a tree — not one of these could survive
without being part of this cycle.
Each living being is dependent upon
other living things for its survival. When we look at the world, we see
that this is not a place where different beings survive independently of
one another. Earth is home to a web of living things that are connected to
each other through a spinning kaleidoscope of relationships. We need each
other to survive and thrive.
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