An Earth Day Offering

Forest Fungi photo series by Isaac Amir

Earth Day blessings to you, fellow cosmic creature. What a privilege it is to walk this great green earth another day; what an honor to behold her majesty, to kneel at her altar, to engage with her bounty in sacred, ethical ways. Today, as in all days, I remind myself that I am not separate from nature—that I came from its womb and to its womb I will return. Many of our kind seem to have forgotten this as they pillage resources without regard to sustainability; they do not abide by the Seventh Generation Principle, a philosophy long held by the Haudenosaunee people wherein all decisions we make should consider their impact on seven generations into the future.

It is true that our ability to inhabit this planet is in jeopardy due to extractive capitalism and corporate greed, and it’s these very same entities that prohibit the policy change necessary to ameliorate the damage. It’s true that if significant, immediate action isn’t taken towards addressing climate change we will indeed find ourselves in a perilous, irreversible situation—that the degradation of our oceans and forests has had astonishing effects on life at every level, most often jeopardizing the vulnerable, the marginalized, those with the least means to thrive under suboptimal conditions. To celebrate the beauty of this spinning rock in infinite space without addressing the harm our species has caused on its surface would be foolish.

But it’s just as true that every single day the natural world offers us something breathtaking, and it would be foolish as well not to receive it. That is why I moved here to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, to be in closer proximity and deeper communion with the earth, to open my palms to her blessings and my heart to her wisdom. And it’s why I’m sharing this photo series with you today—a gift by proxy, from my talented Taurus baby to you, an homage to the fungi of the Humboldt county forest.

On the last Christmas we spent together in our Los Angeles home, I gifted Isaac with an old digital point-and-shoot I hadn’t been using much since making my return to film. The Canon Powershot G7 x Mark II is no longer in production, and its value has tripled in the time since its retirement, with the resale market chomping at the bit for this highly sought after model. But he’d expressed some interest in photography, and, knowing he’d be off to college in a few months, I placed it in his stocking and hoped he would make good use of it. When he sent me an album of his recent photography, my hopes were confirmed. I am astonished by what he’s captured through his lens, the quiet, often clandestine composition of these various fruiting bodies. I am enchanted by the portfolio of artwork my compassionate, forest dwelling son is compiling, proud to be his mother in all ways, and on all days.

As decomposers and nutrient cyclers, communicators and symbionts, Fungi are an essential part of our eco system and I am perpetually in awe of them. Please accept this offering from Isaac and me as a prayer, a spell, a wish for better reciprocity between humans and the land. I hope you find a micro dose of joy in these images and I am sending you all my love.

All images by Isaac Amir