Mother Earth sat thinking in her rocker on the porch. It was another of those evenings; she was all alone, listening to the silence and doing her share of worrying, like all mothers do.
There was a sense of sadness in her sighing, about her children. Earth Day had come and gone and she had scarcely heard from any of them. Oh, a few had called, asking, “Hey, Mom, what do you want for your special day?” It felt wonderful that some remembered. “Oh, don’t bother about me,” she said, as most mothers would. “Just let me know you love me.”
She sat there, knowing they did love her; they told one another that all the time. But why didn’t she feel as loved as she wished to be? She smoothed her worn dress over her knees and tried to hum …something. All she could manage was another sigh. “I guess they are just too busy with more important matters,” she said to herself. “Their world is not as simple as it used to be.”
The dusk deepened into dark and the night sky shone above her. Other worlds, she thought. Another earth somewhere?
“If there is, should I be jealous?” she wondered. “Are the children there any different?” She closed her eyes and remembered the simpler days of her own youth, and those of all her children – when their eyes were filled with the wonder and love of her beauty. For too many of them, something got lost in their growing; too many chose to neglect her.
She closed her eyes as if praying. Her hand smoothed her dress again, then caressed her face as she thought, “Maybe tomorrow,” before finding an uncertain sleep.