Diamonds

He was glazing at the night diamonds with longing after plucking petals off of a sunflower.

Next morning, the boy mustered the courage to confront the next door neighbor girl carrying her favorite flowers: lavenders and sunflowers tie with a wheat string. He slyly handed the mini-bouquet, which the girl looked at with bewilderment.

“Those are for you,” the boy said, looking at the ground. “I picked those fresh in the morning.”

Mother Earth knew the boy has a strong liking to the girl and made sure to grow an abundant of flowers for the boy to select from. 

The girl took the bouquet and gave him a toothy smile. “Thank you. Mama made a batch of chocolate cookies, wanna to come in for some?”

“I love chocolate cookies!,” the boy exclaimed as they walk into the house with the girl handing the boy’s hand.

Young love at its finest.

Prior to placing humans on earth, Mother Earth drew rivers, lands, mountains, the sun and moon. The hardest and fun drawings were the exotic animals and fruits--like dragon fruits, watermelon radish, ginger, Chinese mustard; in the blueprint, instead of a whole continent, she divided the continent into multiples that had different sensibilities in culinary. In the region called “China” gathered grains to make flour, which was used to their infamous baozi--a fun filled with leek and juicy pork. Though 1,527 miles from China, the banh bao has pork, mushrooms, green onions, peas, carrot, Chinese sausage, and quail egg stuffed in the bun. Personally, Mother Earth thought China and Vietnam offered tempting options.

Too bad she was gluten-free. Life was hard for her too.

Mankind used the trees or animal skins to build shelters, markets, and businesses. Everybody, humans and animals, harmonized with nature.

She was took with interest as Christopher Columbus’s discovery of the massive land nestled by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans: America.

It was also where she had a discovery of her own: human curiosity

The Spaniards voyaged to the Inca Empire was a curse as two events unfolded: abandonment of the Inca’s religion with forceful conversion to Christianity and contraction of the civilization as it was wiped out by smallpox and influenza.

Men, women, children, and infants watched their homes burning into the ground.

Ever since the Spaniards conquered the Inca Empire, mankind was getting greedier in terms of obtaining riches. Killings grew everywhere as she saw people getting killed in forests or barns that had blood being spilled on the soil which resulted in bodies being buried.

Buried in her. She felt the last heart beat, the last breath as the victim exited to the next life.

Despite that it didn’t all matter much to Mother Earth until the 18^th century, it bought Mother Earth to her knees and endless sleepless nights.

Europe and America emerged with the Industrial Revolution which enervated the earth. Once beautiful grass was substituted with hard and cold concrete, a hundred-year old willow tree replaced with factories and assembly lines. The children didn’t play outdoors rather they worked in unsanitary and dangerous factory settings.

Mother Earth was left behind forgotten as making the green, not grass, took priority. Another example of greed taking over civilization.

From 1929 to 1941, a new dark era had emerged: the Great Depression. Though it was economically challenging, humans were able to reconnect with nature: picking dandelions, growing tomatoes, cabbages/lettuces, grapes, celery, or carrots. At the poorest of times, laughter echoed in the air. For 365 days, a year, Mother Earth allowed sunny days with no rain; she wanted to see the families spending time outdoors, gardening, and mowing the lawn.

That bought temporarily joy.

Mankind has truly shown its evil skin in Adolf Hitler. The earth became a place for concentrations camps, poisoning chambers, and experimentation on the innocent.

Whenever Adolf took a stroll in the forest or outdoors, she intentionally switched on the rain, so he couldn’t smoke the cigar and had to change out of his soaked clothes.

Scheisse. Hitler yelled in the bathroom taking off the wet uniform.

Your welcome. Ihr willkommen.

You might ask the question: why didn’t you shoot lighting at him? He was as evil as the devil and Hades and should receive that punishment.

Except that would be a problem.

Destiny would intervene and that won’t be so fun. Destiny and Mother Earth had an agreement: you control what you were good at and don’t touch the other realm, hence Mother Earth let that sick bastard lived. Destiny understood Mother Earth’s feelings and took care of the rest. That night, Mother Earth opened a 1836 bottle of wine and ,boy, that wine tasted more delicious than ever.

Mother Earth leaned on the balcony over viewing the world.

Forward to April 22, 2020, the high school foot ball arena filled with grilling mushroom burgers, tofu and vegetable skewers, frying onion rings and fries, having eco-friendly contests like using recyclable materials to build a swing set, making a poster out of left over fabric from the art classes. People were laughing and chomping on the second serving of the mac and cheese (courtesy of Mrs. Robinson of the PTA) on biodegradable plates and forks. The children stood politely in line as the fire burned the wood as it cooked the food.

It was about time.

Centuries of centuries of twists and turns, mankind has done a lot and has more to learn.

Away from the celebration, a young man laid out a blanket and propped on his elbows as he begun to read the text in front of him.

Mother Earth can’t helped but smiled.

“In this book, humans experience successes and failures with its history of discoveries, conquests, blood, tyranny, greed though one remains constant--Mother Earth. The wood for our houses, the tofu or the hamburgers all comes from her. My word before turning to the next page: go outside, pick out something from your surroundings like a leaf (make sure it is not poison ivy) or a flower (a petal works too). I want you to use your touch and smell to appreciate the moment with nature.”

The young man plucked a piece of grass, slowly felt the texture, inhaled and exhaled before looking up at the sky.

Those night diamonds were so beautiful.

Anywhere.

Anytime.

Any era.