Last weekend I spent a whole day at the bay of Fomm Ir-rih. Sometimes I feel a need to disconnect from society and instead reconnect with nature. To lay down on your back in untouched nature is something everyone should try, at least once in your life, and I will explain why.

When I was laying down watching the sky I felt humble. The big sky and big sea in front of me, the power of the sea, reminds me of the humans’ vulnerability. It is hard to describe the feeling, but I seriously feel like if my soul and heart need this recharging every now and then. No mobile and no distraction – just one with nature. You understand that for the world to be, all pieces of the puzzle have to do their part. This includes you.

No full scale change in the universe happens because of one person or one thing, although one can be the one to start a ripple effect. So when people tell me, during my voluntary work cleaning up and educating in proper waste disposal, that I can never ever change this island, they are actually right.

I alone can’t change much, but together with the members in my group and the other people I meet and influence we can together create a ripple effect that is impossible to stop. Society is built up in a very complex way, for each opinion there is like an old model scale with a bowl on each side. There are two groups with opposite opinions, each in their opposite side bowl. In the middle there are the ones not wanting to speak up. This group is actually the biggest one in most scenarios and also the most important.

When you watch a movie, you think that the protagonist is the same as main character. In film terms it isn’t. The protagonist is sometimes not the one with the most lines in the script, but the one who changes the plot of the movie. The one who makes a difference and develops on a personal level.

What I am trying to say is that in the society we have two groups with opposite opinions that might not change, and a big group of possible protagonists in the middle. They are the ones who will make the scale topple over should they start going in one direction. If it is something I’ve learnt during these 7 years, it is that it’s by far easier to influence the ones in the middle. What happens when you do win them over, when they start speaking up and the balance topples over to one side, is that the ones opposite have to go in the same direction. Maybe not to start with - it depends on how long they can hold on and resist the gravity.

The whole positive movement works around this concept and Malta Clean Up, which is my cleanup group, has this as its main value. No negativity, only constructive feedback and informing the group that are in the middle first and foremost. If on this journey we cross paths with one from opposite side, we can of course go into discussion, but always with a positive mindset. To meet people with a different view with anger will never be a successful way forward. In today’s society we waste so much time on anger, time that we could have used being productive instead. We are feeding the wrong wolf.

To learn how to not feed the wrong wolf, how to not let angry emotions take over and work against your cause, we need to look into ourselves. In a stressful environment this is hard, hence we need the untouched nature with no noise pollution.

At the moment it seems like if the ones in charge are not aware of the importance untouched green areas has for the public health, both physically and psychologically. Chopping down trees and justifying it with “We will plant new ones!” is like removing a sea and claim “But we will have buckets of water for all of you!”

Every time a mature tree is cut down, we create a wound. Every new batch of trees planted after chopping down a mature one can work like a stitch, but the damage is still there and it bleeds until fully healed. So up until those newly planted trees are mature, the society will suffer the consequences.

The consequences can soon be that we will not have anywhere to spend time in untouched nature, nowhere to disconnect and recharge. Nowhere for our children to connect with and learn how to respect nature.

That is what I personally would call hell.