Ellie Marie Hammond …
…is a young woman on the forefront of battling the climate crisis. Her hometown of Flagstaff, Arizona ignited her passion for environmental conservation at an early age, as she was deeply moved by the Ponderosa Pine forest where she spent endless hours hiking and dreaming. Young Ellie made the decision to spend her life protecting beautiful landscapes, and in May of 2021 she received her Bachelor of Science degree in Geography from the University of Arizona, then moved to Des Moines, Iowa to work for Green Iowa AmeriCorps and begin writing “Ellie’s Room,” in order to share positive perspectives about climate change and the opportunities it presents to better our planet. January, 2023 found her back in the classroom once again, studying for a Masters degree. She is currently working for the city of Tucson, Arizona.
Our Home in the Cosmos
By Ellie Marie Hammond
She is our beginning and our end.
She is all we know, yet just a spec of dust in the cosmos.
She is graceful, smooth, and calm.
Her grass gently sways in the breeze, her waters rest still as glass, her mountains stand firm and tall.
Yet, she is restless, angry, violent.
Her weather changes on a whim, her storms leave a path of destruction, her children fight tooth and nail to survive.
She provides, forgives, and nurtures.
Her fertile soils give way to abundance, her sunsets ease the most severe pain, her rain cleanses the thickest air.
She frightens, disciplines, takes away.
Her booming thunder sends shivers down the spine, her fires dissolve structures to dust, her droughts claim the lives of abundant fields.
She truly is a mother.
Her perfection lies in her imperfections.
Her strength immeasurable, her pain and joy impossible to ignore.
She is never just one thing.
Never only kind or only punishing, never only a daydream or only a nightmare, never only calm or only restless.
She is life obtained from duality.
To know life, we must face death.
To know summer, we must survive winter.
To know abundance, we must experience lack.
She teaches us the cycle, showing us depths so we can realize heights, showing us darkness so we can perceive light, showing us drought so we can appreciate rain.
She is us, and we are her.
We, too, are never just one thing.
We are a reflection of her, our mother, Earth.
We are happy and sad, compassionate and judgmental, sensitive and stoic, just as she is.
Our fates are intertwined with hers.
We need our mother.
We need her water, her air, her nourishment.
We need her storms, and we need her calm.
We need all of her children- the plants, animals, insects, bacteria, fungi- all of them.
We also need each other.
As unpredictable and as dual as she may be, she is our home, she is our family, and she is everything we are made of.
Even when we think she’s unfair, she deserves our recognition, our respect, our love, our gratitude.
She deserves a moment of silence, an act of kindness, a gesture of thanks, a day of celebration.
She is a gift, as are we.
Mothers’ Day, 2022
