Natural
Connections
“Those
who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength
that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely
healing in the repeated refrains of nature—the assurance that dawn
comes after night, and spring after winter.” Rachel Carson (Silent
Spring)
Humidity
hangs in the air this morning; a slight fog can be seen in the
distant trees. I wish I could bottle it and send it to Washington
state where the fires have now burned four hundred square miles. Look
at that number—that's the distance I drive to see my cousins in
North Carolina! Can you imagine having everything burned to the
ground for four hundred miles? I saw a very sad film clip on the news
last night, taken from a helicopter flying above the smoldering
ground. Four deer were making their way through the ash, along a
trail familiar to them, but nothing green was growing within miles. I
wondered, both how they managed to survive the fire, and what on
earth they would eat now.
When
I was a little girl, the copper mining industry in western North
Carolina, conducted open smelting. The acid in the air killed every
living thing for miles around, and the runoff polluted the streams
and rivers. After the farmers in the area brought a class action
lawsuit, that industry cleaned up its act and planted thousands of
trees, which now are forests. It took close to forty years to recover
the land, but it did come back. Certain animal populations had to be
restored by humankind. I remember when wild pigs were released in the
Linville area in the 1960's. Now there are more deer than were there
when the first settlers came. Given half a chance, nature will
rebound.
I
find it comforting that when humans become aware of the plight of our
wild places, and of our fellow animals, we usually rise to the
occasion. We may not know how, those of us who are not scientists,
but we are beginning to understand that everything is, indeed,
connected. We need each other. Rachel Carson was an early voice for
that consciousness. In Silent Spring, published in 1962, she wrote:
“In nature, nothing exists alone.” And so it is.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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