A very unscientific, mostly from memory, timeline of Earth Day milestones in my own life. I know you’re on the edge of your seat. Here goes.

A bazillion years ago: The earth cooled. And it was glorious and perfect. Eden, we like to call it.

Shortly thereafter: People came along and all hell broke loose.

1962: Silent Spring by Rachel Carson was published and (some) people thought we might have a problem with pollution.

1970: Delightful Lee and I worked on a committee composed of youth groups from several churches to organize and host the first ever Dallas Walk for Hunger, a 30-mile trek through Northeast Dallas and Richardson to raise money for and awareness of global hunger. It was the first of its kind and started the trend of collecting sponsors for feats of daring-do–like walking 30 miles in one day, mostly in the pouring rain. Nowadays 10 miles is the limit, but what did we know?

At the same time some people held the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970 with events around the globe to call attention to air and water pollution. Earth Day has been observed every year since.

Not so much the Walk for Hunger (except in Massachusetts where it’s still going on.)

1985: The hole in the Ozone layer was discovered and the unbridled use of Aqua Net was to blame.

1990: In observance of the twenty-year anniversary of Earth Day, I wanted to create some activities for the youth in my church to raise awareness of the perils the earth was then facing–expanded from water and air pollution or the hole in the ozone to include deforestation, loss of species, melting glaciers, CO2 emissions, famine, drought, and all the other plagues you’ve heard about.

But, lo, there were no resources, no books, no ideas, nothing in the church library or bookstores. And, at the time, there was no GOOGLE! No YAHOO! No YOUTUBE! Yea, though I walked thru Cokesbury, I could find nothing!

Determined, I went scouring. I bought all the secular books I could find, discovered school curricula, joined kid’s clubs, subscribed to Ranger Rick magazine. And then I started writing.

1996: My book, Cherish the Gift: A Congregational Guide to Earth Stewardship, was published by Judson Press.

In the book, I outlined many of the perils facing the earth and ways that churches, communities and individuals could respond in big and small ways. It made a huge splash at my church.

Not so much anywhere else. I like to think of myself as a voice crying in the wilderness, with acid rain falling on my head.

1997-Present: I wrote romance novels, I worked at JCPenney, Scott and I raised our family. My friend Robin and I started One Earth, a two-woman musical presentation that we took to churches in North Texas. Scott and I opened Dallas Media Center. He passed away. Somewhere in there I recycled, composted, turned off lights, bought low-flow showerheads, and gave up on anything much happening with governments or churches where global warming (now called climate change) was concerned.

Earth Day 2023: I have paged back through my book and am discouraged, no, horrified, to find that very little has changed. America is not the leader in this area as it should be, and we are now playing catch up from our last regime’s blatant disregard of the issue.

I can continue to do what I can do in my tiny piece of the earth. But I still have a voice and I intend to be heard. I can write. Not a book this time, but emails to all my representatives, letting them know that I want some action, some drastic, crazy feats of daring-do.

You have a voice, too. I hope you’ll use it.

If we don’t do anything and nothing continues to happen for the next thirty years, I can tell you one thing for certain.

The earth will win.