Let’s admit it: sometimes we have a hard time accepting the truth about ourselves—even when that truth can help us. Think of Copernicus, who struggled to get the idea accepted that the earth went around the sun. Think of Galileo, who managed to prove that fact, but was still challenged by the prevailing authorities to recant his calculations. And yet, it’s now clearly understood that our planet is really constantly in motion around the sun.

This resistance is quite understandable. We can’t feel the earth spinning on its own axis, so when we see the sunrise, it looks like we’re standing still on solid, stationary ground, and the sun is gradually rising in the East.  Even now, our own experience might make it hard to accept this as a fact, but we have enough proof from humanity’s forays into space to believe that it’s true.

In another natural aspect of our lives, we know that we have energy in our body that allows us to function in the world, but every night we run out of energy and need to lie down to go to sleep. We don’t question this fact; we simply feel tired and know that we have to sleep. Everyone takes this for granted as a natural process. Just like the cell phones we plug into an electric socket at night, so that their batteries will recharge for the next day, we turn out the lights and close our eyes for several hours so that our inner battery, our energy, can be recharged for another day of activity.

Now we’ve come to a time when we need to reach beyond our current awareness to realize something even more profound about our lives. We need to come to the realization that we have energy because we are part of the energetic system of the planet we inhabit. Even though we’re separate individuals walking on top of the earth, we’re still dependent on the ecosystem of the planet for our existence. Its air, water, soil, and weather systems, are all an essential source for our energy’s survival. Our very breath is dependent on this ecosystem.

And yet some who live here, on our planet, would question the necessity for the air to be quite so clean, for the water to be completely free from any contamination or poisonous chemicals. It’s as if they don’t realize that we’re dependent on these gifts to keep us alive. Maybe they just don’t see the full picture.

To paraphrase the psalmist: “And they say, ‘[The Universe] will not see, nor will the [Universe] of Jacob understand.’ Understand, you boors among the people; and you fools when will you gain wisdom? [The Universe] that implants the ear, shall It not hear? The [Universe] that fashions the eye, shall It not see? … [The universe] knows the thoughts of man. (Psalm 94:7-9)

Even though we can’t see the source of all that exists, we are clearly part of something much greater than ourselves. Even though we can’t see the energy that supports our lives, the necessity for it becomes clearly evident whenever it’s taken away from us. Let’s not be blind to the need to protect our supportive ecosystem, if not for ourselves, then for our children and grandchildren.

Let’s think very carefully before we fracture our soil with poisons that could contaminate and destroy our pristine water supply. Let’s consider what we’re creating for the generations to come when we pollute the air with our fossil fuels. Even this beautiful planet, with all that it keeps giving us, cannot expand in size to provide an endless supply of whatever we want. It’s now up to us to create a more balanced approach to everything we want to accomplish, so that we can ensure a more sustainable path for all of our activities.

When we do our part to nurture the planet that gives us life, we will not only be nurturing our own lives, but also the billions of lives that come after us, who are relying on us to leave the world with the same healthy abundance it’s provided for us.