Forgive us, Mother Earth, for we have sinned

Forgive us, for we have populated you with beings who have yet to evolve from cavemen. You nurture them, protect them and feed them. They tear at your insides and claw at your existence. They do not comprehend their own anger, nor can they fathom the strength of their blows. They keep hitting you with clubs made of metal, calling it development and progress. They made the wheel, but instead of making another, they fight over its ownership, damaging you in the process. They burn down one another’s homes, not realising that they are burning your flesh. They seize lands with the aid of bloodshed, failing to grasp the fact that what they are trying to claim is a part of your own limb that they are staining with the insides of those whom you sought to protect.

Forgive us, for we have created boundaries and divisions that were never meant to exist. We made countries which needed borders. Those countries birthed men who developed cultures to distinguish themselves from their neighbours. Those cultures gave rise to religion and religion gave rise to sects. We keep furthering the divide, driving wedges into you that we decorate as gateways to foreign lands. We belittle the ideologies and skin colours of our kindred. We abuse those who do not agree with us. We target those whom we perceive as threats. We silence those whom we do not wish to listen to anymore. Forgive us for thinking we have the right or power to do so.

Forgive us, for these divisions ignite us with hatred and self-righteousness. We kill our brethren, simply to establish power. We forget that we owe it all to you. Forgive us, for we chose to let a select few have more power and rise amongst the ranks, though we claimed that all our religions and cultures preached equality. We let them oppress us, we let them command us and we gave them the power to behave with you as they please. We abuse your daylight and pervert the dark. We wreak havoc during the day with abandon and transgress all boundaries of morality under the dark cover of night. Forgive us for staining your purity with the filth in our minds and hearts.

Perhaps, you are trying to fight back. Perhaps, you are tired of trying and are now reacting violently. You are protesting with tsunamis, pleading with tornadoes, lashing out with earthquakes and shedding tears with floods. You did so before, when we forgot how to exist as we were meant to. You have punished us time and again, and all we do is ignore you like the egotists that we are. We forget that you have more power. We are deluded by the safety that our skyscrapers may provide. We are tricked by our minds when we think that the bridges we’ve built, the buildings we’ve constructed, the dams that we have erected to hold back your force will be sufficient in saving us from your wrath.

Perhaps, this pride will be our undoing. We have, after all, failed to learn from history. Maybe we are destined to face the complete blow of your anger. Perhaps, we are the greatest evil to walk upon your pure soil.

Forgive us, Mother Earth, for we have wronged you. Forgive us, for we may never learn. Forgive us for being the fools that we are, swayed by our pride and our insignificant successes. Forgive us, and have mercy.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 15^th,  2015.

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