Loving the environment

My long search led to me different pictures, most of which, again not what I was looking for. There were images of children gardening, a girl smiling with flowers in her hand, a boy hugging a tree and a child walking in a mystical forest. How would I explain these to my kids? I got lost.

The easy way was to tell my children, ‘Hey, look! If you love the environment, you must plant a tree!’ Or maybe I could say, ‘See that boy hugging the tree bark? Wow, he loves trees!’

Today’s world is complex, and so is the environmental issue. It is not that important for my kids to adore wild flowers or get excited with a beautiful garden. Because the painful truth is that, humans are destroying pristine forests to expand settlements, most of which are done in a careless and irresponsible way.

On top of these deforestation sites, they build beautiful landscapes and appealing artificial gardens thinking that they have cherished nature. In reality, all these can never compensate for the loss of biodiversity and environmental pollution caused.

I will not be worried if my kids do not show much interest in gardening or picking flowers, but it is a grave mistake if they do not appreciate the importance of natural landscapes and the need to preserve them.

Adoring a flower does not necessarily prove one’s love for the environment. Not turning a blind eye to deforestation does. It will be wonderful if my kids can comprehend that it is okay if their house is not surrounded by a lush garden.

In fact, having a simple and modest lifestyle is the way forward to preserve the environment, for the main causes of environmental damage have been identified: greed, excessive consumption, lack of reusing and recycling, and wastage.

Being beautiful

Real beauty neither lies in the color of the eye nor the fullness of the lip. It lies in the heart, conscience, words and deeds.

Being a mother to two daughters, one of my favorite sentences is, ‘You look beautiful!’. After all, that is what a girl usually expects. At least that is what I think, and I may be wrong.

Until one day, my elder daughter came to me with a sad face and said, ‘Mom, I’m not beautiful enough!’ That was the first time I ever heard such statement from her.