Taking
and Giving
“...it
comes down to that
a
simple understanding of life's give and take
and
we in our lives move forward simply
accepting
and giving
as
the earth gives
and
rejecting and taking
as
the earth takes
because
we know nothing else
there
is nothing else to know
it
comes down to that...”
Levi
Romero
A
swarm of yellow jackets has set up housekeeping between the shrubs in
my front yard. They come and go, aggressively combing the
neighborhood for winter food. I don't like to poison things, but
because of them, I cannot wash my window or prune the shrubbery now
blocking said window. I am afraid to rake the leaves or pull the
weeds out of the flower bed. So I have emptied an entire can of
insecticide around the entrance to their underground lair. They
continue to fly in and out. I can hear them laughing as they whiz by
my ear, “Silly human! We thrive on your paltry poison!” Tiny
terrorists in yellow-striped prison garb.
Sometimes
you win, and sometimes the yellow jackets win. I shudder to think
what else my poison has killed. The wild things that have decided to
give us a run for our money are increasing in number. Yellow jackets
like to nest in woodlands, and there are no woods in my urban
neighborhood, only manicured lawns (except for mine) and houses. They
have joined the red-tail hawks, deer, barred owls, raccoons, opossums and
coyotes that lurk about. On one of my recent walks, I passed a hawk
half my size, standing in my neighbor's yard, yanking white feathers
out of a captured pigeon. He snapped a golden eye at me, as if to
say, “Where are your manners? I'm trying to eat here!” If we're
determined to encroach on their habitat, they have every right to
encroach on ours.
I
guess my window will go another year without washing, and my flower
bed will grow lush with weeds. The earth's creatures have spoken.
“there
is nothing else to know
it
comes down to that...”
In
the spirit,
Jane
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