While many humans, humane and not-so-humane, find themselves locked in and restricted, anxious and fearful about uncertainty and the unknown, the Earth and most of her children rejoice. Humans have a unique relationship with reality, don’t we? Reality is a hard pill to swallow much of the time. It is indiscriminate and happens whether we want it to or not, whether we hope for something else or worry about what we do not know. We can’t control reality and often times find ourselves so inconvenienced with “intolerance” for the present. In the midst of this pandemic, humankind is getting a strong dose of reality… especially that our activity on this planet has catastrophic effects. Especially that death is at our doorstep and near at hand for many that we love. The reality is that it was us and our activity that created the circumstances for this virus to emerge. There is another reality that we are faced with, and if we pay attention we will see the profound effect of our drastic in-activity.

It’s as though Nature has been waiting for us to withdraw. The stories and videos keep coming in…

Coyotes in San Francisco… Pumas in Chili… Goats in Wales… Deer in Japan… Turkeys in Oakland… Wild boar in Barcelona.

Human consciousness is our greatest gift and our biggest curse. We can make meaning and we can pay attention. But we also can be distracted and in denial of the real all around us. For years and years, we have done our thing, gone about our business, pushing out the vulnerable and fragile wild to make way for our own leisurely pursuits. And to give ourselves a sense of connection with those whose homes we destroyed, we put many in cages, zoos, where we can go and visit them at our convenience, marveling at their wildness in captivity.

But now WE are the ones in the cages… humans locked inside, looking out. Restricted without the control and freedom we are used to. It is an ironic twist of fate, is it not? What happens now that the conscious ones are inside looking out as the wild ones begin making themselves at home munching on our manicured landscapes? Nature has a way of waking us up because nature is reality… and at some point, distracted as we may be, reality will find us and have its way with us.

I know people have their phones and their Netflix. I know people have their social media and their news. All spells. Constant input, constant messaging, words leading us to fear, blaming, questioning, suspecting. Some, though, will look away from the screen and turn down the volume. They will look out and wake up. They will see how interconnected we really are. Maybe they will even feel the Earth resting, coming back to herself. And they will be changed.