The powerlessness I feel as I watch the fires burn... waiting on mother nature to help

[Coexist]

other times recently,

... fearing mother nature as the hurricane winds howl

... cursing her as the flood waters rise

It reminded me of this:

How fortunate, how fragile, and how insignificant we are

“ It’s hard to appreciate the Earth when you’re down right upon it because it’s so huge. “ It gives you in an instant, just at a position 240,000 miles away from it, < an idea of> how insignificant we are, how fragile we are, and how fortunate we are to have a body that will allow us to enjoy the sky and the trees and the water ... It’s something that many people take for granted when they’re born and they grow up within the environment. But they don’t realise what they have. And I didn’t till I left it.”

– Jim Lovell, Apollo 8 and 13

“ From up there, it looks finite and it looks fragile and it really looks like just a tiny little place on which we live in a vast expanse of space. It gave me the feeling of really wanting us all to take care of the Earth. I got more of a sense of Earth as home, a place where we live. And of course you want to take care of your home. You want it clean. You want it safe.”

– Winston Scott, two- time shuttle astronaut who wrote a book, “ Reflections From Earth Orbit”

“ You change because you see your life differently than when you live on the surface everyday. We are so involved in our own little lives and our own little concerns and problems. I don’t think the average person realises the global environment that we really live in. I certainly am more aware of how fragile our Earth is, and, frankly, I think that I care more about our Earth because of the experiences I’ve had traveling in space.”

– Eileen Collins, first female space shuttle commander

“ Up in space when you see a sunset or sunrise, the light is coming to you from the sun through that little shell of the Earth’s atmosphere and back out to the spacecraft you’re in. The atmosphere acts like a prism. So for a short period of time you see not only the reds, oranges and yellows, the luminous quality like you see on Earth, but you see the whole spectrum red-orange-yellow-blue-green-indigo-violet . “ You come back impressed, once you’ve been up there, with how thin our little atmosphere is that supports all life here on Earth. So if we foul it up, there’s no coming back from something like that.”

– John Glenn, first American to orbit the Earth ( 1962) and former US senator

“ It was the only colour we could see in the universe. We’re living on a tiny little dust mote in left field on a rather insignificant galaxy. And basically this is it for humans. It strikes me that it’s a shame that we’re squabbling over oil and borders .”

– Bill Anders, Apollo 8, whose photos of Earth became famous.

“ The sheer beauty of it just brought tears to my eyes. “ If people can see Earth from up here, see it without those borders, see it without any differences in race or religion, they would have a completely different perspective. Because when you see it from that angle, you cannot think of your home or your country. All you can see is one Earth....”

– Anousheh Ansari, Iranian- American space tourist, took this photo, right, from the space station

from The Scotsman

We need to step back from our squabbles, and appreciate the Now.

[rudy23]

1. The indifferent forces of Mother Nature, combined with the contempt of Human Nature for her victims

makes for a force that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemies.

[applegrove]

2. Let us hope for less wind. Let us hope for rain by gosh. Let us wish

safety for the people of SoCal.