I often get frustrated by the meteorologists who predict our weather. I must admit that quite often they do get it right; but those times when they get it wrong can cause a gardener to lose plants to unexpected frost. The weather app on my phone is different from the one on my computer, and they are both different from the one on the television. I am never quite sure which one to believe. I have learned to err on the side of caution, though; and I have sometimes gone to the trouble of covering plants overnight, only to discover in the morning that the temperature was still above freezing. The desertification that is happening in so many areas is becoming increasingly evident. I completed some last minute chores in the garden on Wednesday while temperatures were in the low 70’s. Temperatures fell overnight and continued to drop throughout the following day, to freezing; but the gusting wind made it feel like only 20℉. This morning, just 36 hours later, it was only 15℉ at 6 a.m. Snow is expected tomorrow and Sunday with night time temperatures expected to dive into the single digits. If this weather continues – and we are less than halfway through Autumn – it will be a long winter indeed.
I am alarmed that people living in the Estes Park area of Colorado are under mandatory evacuation, due to the extensive forest fires. I am fortunate, and very grateful, that I have never had to endure that kind of upheaval, as so many have had to do because of hurricanes, floods, fires, and in some parts of the world, because of racial and political conflict. I suspect that if we elect the wrong candidate for our next president, who refuses to address global warming, we will be seeing evacuations on a regular basis. I often think about wildlife and insects whose lives have been disrupted by our bulldozers and our encroachment on their habitat. It must feel to them, like a natural disaster feels like to us. Perhaps they know that their displacement is not caused by nature after all, but by humans. Could all of these devastating occurrences be happening as a kind of karmic equalization? Are humans now paying the price for the suffering we have caused to other plants, animals, and birds all over the planet, and life in the oceans as well? I believe that it is karma, and if we want to see changes for the better, we must begin now to do all the good we can – for everything.
