Mother Earth, Thank You For This Life | Khanh Vy Tran | TEDxBritishEmbassyHanoi

good afternoon everyone good afternoon how are you doing i hope you are having a great day and

this

is my ted talk so i was born and raised in nian a province in central vietnam and when i talk about central vietnam my hometown we have a very popular phrase that

tran

slates to central vietnam floods and storms growing in central vietnam. I have seen and experienced many storm seasons widespread flooding landslides prolonged heavy rain and it seems like they are becoming part of my

life

people in central Vietnam have been through many storm seasons, but the last one in 2020 was the worst of our lives.

In one month, two weeks, two days, central Vietnam was hit by 13 consecutive tropical storms and affected millions of millions of people, and

this

is real footage. of my grand

mother

and my uncle had to help my grand

mother

evacuate to a safer place and seeing this really breaks my heart and I know if you come from central Vietnam, you know this very well. There have been many debates and concerns about the extent to which human-induced climate change has anything to do with causing this disaster that affects millions of people each year, we have yet to come to a conclusion, but while it is possible that the change Climate change may be attributable to a small part of this disaster, that small part can become a really big part in pushing our community beyond our ability to deal with all the damage like this.

I was a coffee lover. I love drinking coffee. I love drinking tea and I often post videos of myself drinking many different types of coffee and tea on my social media and one day when I posted some of my followers texted me on Instagram and said: Hey, why do you drink? so much? a lot of coffee why are you using so much plastic I'm so disappointed in you I'm going to stop following you and I said hey it's not that deep it's not that serious are you criticizing me? I think I am a good consumer and I contribute. to the economy a lot but it took me a long time to realize that I was the inconsiderate one I was the one you know how to educate I like the knowledge of this and I was wrong yes, I really was wrong but until last year um and I know that apparently I have something that see in causing this damage to the environment.

It is very difficult to face the truth, but what is more difficult is to change. It's very difficult for me because I know very well that I am not good at giving up. my old habits my convenience uh for sustainability I tried many times and failed and today the environment has never been talked about more we are constantly listening to protect the environment being green not doing this not doing that I tried and failed many times until last year, the unforgettable year 2020 of central vietnam. I was in Hanoi constantly reading news watching news about my hometown worrying and I talked to my grandmother on the phone and she told me something like in Vietnamese, which is

tran

slated as I have been living, I am living in this

life

for 90 years, but I have never I've seen the

earth

cry so much, really, so much, and it's just that, you know, I burst into tears because I know she was alone and that was the moment I realized why the exact reason why I find it so difficult to change, it is so difficult for me to change for the environment, it is because I have never seen the Earth the way my grandmother saw it.

I've always seen the

earth

as something non-human, so you know when we use a pen and the pen doesn't work and you say, "Okay, I'm going to throw it away, bye, I'm going to buy it." another but for people I just can't throw you I just can't hit you I just can't hurt you physically or emotionally I don't want to do that and I can't do it it all comes down to human emotions how about we look at the earth? As if I were a person in a relationship with each of them, how about we put some emotions into the perspective that we see the earth like my grandmother does?

Yeah, I did that and I think it's wonderful to see, oh my gosh, this. lies, yes, how about we call the earth mother earth with all the respect we have ever known? Have you ever felt that it is so wonderful or so beautiful to look at the earth? That way, seeing the earth is actually a human being and you know when you walk on the earth on the earth you're actually kissing the skin you know we can imagine like the earth the earth is your skin the oceans are your blood the rocks are your bones and you know that we, the children, are the children of her who caresses her with so much affection and I feel that every time we walk on the earth and we feel that, oh, we are kissing her skin and every time we enter the forest, we walk freely among the trees, we always have a feeling of discovery and a deep inner peace. within us what is the reason the reason is that the forest is her heart and as if she were hugging us all with her hug very affectionately and her heart is very big and we are very small, that is why we feel so protected and when Night falls and you will see that the earth little by little goes to sleep which makes its children do the same.

We go to sleep and when the sun rises you see the sun gives all the worm and strength to all living beings. including us and the sun placed on our skin feels like a morning kiss from mother earth, so it is obvious that humans are part of nature, we are not separate from nature, this is the magical connection of the earth, We human beings and the earth, we are all. interconnected we are one in great unity and I have to say

thank

you grandma for this grandma if you are watching this I love you I appreciate it very much and um unfortunately when we see the earth as just an environment when we don't see the earth that way with a lot of emotions we are becoming more unconscious of our behaviors about thinking yes um mother so about mother mother is someone who gave this life mother is someone you know nourishes us lifts the earth and is like the earth mother earth Mother earth also gave us life, nourishes us by providing us everything we need to survive by responding to all our needs so that we can develop and live happily, but when we can't see that way we sometimes feel like we are the children we are. a little needy and greedy at times and we are becoming more unconscious about the behaviors and about the thinking that we exploit her, harm her and make her compromise both her beauty and her health and what is she doing, what is she doing, she is just there, the mother.

The Earth is just there and looking back and looking deeper we can think how powerful it is when it has so much energetic tolerance to accept and transform all the damage we have done to it even though it took hundreds of millions of years, oh this is my favorite quote from taytinya walk like you are kissing the earth with your feet it is obvious that we are all human and no one wants to hurt our mother um and when we see that way we would I also don't want to harm the earth so the The answer is how we can do it.

I think there are many ways, but one of them is to think before you do something, for example, I'm next to you and if it's like, ah. If I hit you, I'd feel like, "Oh my God, I'm so sorry, I'm not going to do that next time." It just can't be applied to the earth and it's also about being more conscious of our cowboy footprint so first of all reuse recycle everything you like make sure you reduce a little bit what you throw away or even shop wisely use a usable shopping bag every time you go shopping and buy less plastic a small step like that or you can plant more Trees are closer to nature to appreciate how beautiful the earth is or you can also, you know, educate yourself and educate the others, and I've been very grateful to those friends who texted me through Instagram and you know, highlighting my flaws and reminding me. tells me how dangerous it is to use plastic while drinking coffee and if you are watching this,

thank

you very much from the bottom of my heart.

I believe all the small steps can add up to a difference. The thing here is that the question we ask: have we ever hurt our mother? Yes, have we ever helped our mother? Yes, but are we perfect? I believe we don't need perfection and we are not perfect. What we need is for millions of people to do this together in an imperfect way. because those little things can add up to a big difference in the future and at the end of the day I am earth you are earth we are earth without self separation we are in a big one you know unity and every step we take on this earth with attention brings us gratitude to life like this mother earth thank you very much for this life thank you very much for giving life to me and to all humanity you are the mother of humanity you are the mother of life and we feel so sorry and we feel so grateful at the same time and we know that We are together in this fight because we know that you are worth fighting for.

I hope you have a great day today, thank you.