I was going to organize an event and participate this year, but life got the better of me and I spaced on it. So when I saw the email earlier today, I said to myself, “Well, it’s too late to organize a large group, but I can still participate in some way.”

Where could I find a wounded place that needed some attention? 

With my little parrot Fruity on my head I walked outside our front door. 

And there it was. My own little garden. In shambles. Decimated. Torn up. Destroyed. A gardener tore up all the beloved Agaves (to make room for a new fence to be installed. I felt very sad and started to cry. Which feels silly with a bird on my head, but …

Just then, my boyfriend Eric walked into the wounded garden. He saw me crying and wanted to cheer me up. I recognized that he was now engaging in the Global Earth Exchange with me.

I suggested we follow the Global Earth Exchange suggestion of making a bird out of the wreckage. Eric reached down and picked up this stick, and said, “Look, it’s a bird!” I also found a stick right away that reminded me of a bird. In just a minute or two we had created bird art together.

The final part of the Global Earth Exchange ceremony is to honor the land by giving something back to it. I wanted to give something to the Spirits of the land and my birdies. I went in the house and got a handful of SunFlower seeds. I put Fruity back on her cage with a bowlful of seeds and thanked her for participating with me.

Then I went back into the garden to sprinkle some on the torn up ground, and that’s when a new friend came to visit: a baby Blue Jay! He graciously accepted my offering of SunFlower Seeds. A reminder that new life will grow from the old. It doesn’t make the loss of the Agave plants and the others any less strong. But, it does give me hope. And, a feeling of excitement, as I wonder what will grow in its place.