The weather couldn't have been better for any of the pre-Earth Day activities scheduled in our area this past week.

Bright sun and a refreshing breeze kept the volunteers at road or creek side dedicated to their clean-up tasks.

In Leetsdale, Bell Acres and in Osborne (where it rained a little on their parade some days ago), extra hands helped to beautify the landscape either by tearing out vines and bushes or by picking up litter and debris.

And as Earth Day 2007 passes, those volunteers are now in possession of much more than a little physical discomfort: They've learned the lessons of being in touch with nature: our responsibility to it and our nurturing of it.

What was left at the end of their separate projects were piles of bran-ches and withering weeds, stacks of tires and bags full of trash discarded by thoughtless strangers along the way.

For a few hours during each outing, Quaker Valley students, residents and borough officials worked as trash collectors.

Instead of a paycheck, they earned aching muscles, thorn pricks, soggy shoes and jeans, and some honest-to-goodness sweat while out in the brambles and the fresh air.

I'm certain they all rode home feeling tired but satisfied, knowing they had done something good for Mother Earth and the rest of us.

Many of us live too cleanly these days when summer landscaping is just a phone call away for experts to mulch the shrubs, dig in the annuals and dig out the offending weeds.

A single check pays for our beautiful surroundings that lasts all season long.

We hardly take time to smell the flowers let alone plant them ourselves on our knees inside the garden patch.

With a trowel and pruners as our only instruments and the power of our own hands, we can change the world.

Without words or Web sites, reports or supervisors, we can design a place of our very own -- one seed at a time.

Close to the earth, it's easy to hear the sound of our breathing.

The dirt is cool and soft, sifted by our fingers around each sprout. The many colors of green are unnameable.

Flowers and vegetables will grow and we have helped. The landscape now is cleared of trash and clutter near the pure waters of the creek.

Our hands are dirty, but the earth is alive -- and so are we.