Swan Sanctuary

I have accumulated some bonus days over the course of my lifetime. I have passed the time of getting old, to actually being old. I am sure that most of us, when we are young, never believe that we will one day be a grey-haired senior. Time, or the passing of events, seems to accelerate though, and we suddenly find ourselves nearer to the end of life.

I now have two energetic great granddaughters. I also have a one year old great grandson and another great grandchild on the way. The world has changed considerably since the 1950’s. I often feel that I no longer belong here. The digital existence and the disconnect from Nature that is so prevalent, causes me great sadness. There are, of course, some good changes and positive things happening in today’s world. However; I am greatly concerned about our planet and for the fate of my grand children and great grandchildren.

I may soon be reaching my expiration date – the end of the mission for which I signed on at birth. Perhaps I have already passed my end date and each subsequent day is a bonus day that I have been granted. I will use these bonus days to the fullest. I hope to share with the younger generation, at each opportunity, the beauty of Nature. I hope to leave this legacy for my great grandchildren: to appreciate and care for our planet. Treat her as the most precious gift you have ever been given because she is the giver of life – her air, her water, her soil, and her sunlight sustain you.

When my bonus days are all used up and I can no longer give of my time, talents, and wisdom – when I become nothing more than a memory to a few – let them remember and emulate the love I have had for our Earth.

Our modern world has deprived many of seeing and interacting with Nature. They live their lives around a 24 hour clock, never taking the time for the natural pauses between night and day; but Nature has provided us with night time for a reason. City dwellers know nothing of the night sky. It is completely blotted out by the abundance of artificial light, in street lamps, on houses, on buildings, and in parking lots. They speed from place to place on highways where traffic remains as heavy at night, as during the day. They have no understanding of the detrimental effects that so much light pollution has on other species. Children grow up seeing animals in zoos, which is not really seeing them at all. Locked into the bright, noisy city life, these people are unable to understand the natural world.

My oldest daughter and son-in-law recently bought property outside of the city, where a light curfew has been implemented. Never having had the opportunity to see the stars before, they were blown away by the sheer numbers of them that fill the night sky. They were equally thrilled by the numerous hummingbirds that could be heard and seen during the warmer months. Their property is in an area where I had spent many summers as a young girl, with my grandparents. My grandmother had several hummingbird feeders hung from the roof eaves surrounding her house. Birds, wildflowers, tranquil silence, and the night sky are something that I have had the privilege of knowing.

Those of us who have seen and had intimate experience with Nature want to protect our planet. Millions of nonprofits attempt to reach the hearts of people, in order to alleviate suffering that has been caused to so many other species. The problem is that many city dwellers remain ignorant of the damage that has been done to the earth. They have never experienced Nature first hand. We need to bring Nature back into the city. We must bring her back into our homes and into our hearts, because until our heart strings are pulled upon by something real – by something natural – ignorance and apathy will persist. When we make that connection with even a small part of Nature, to care about something beyond our personal existence, there is hope. We can begin by turning off porch lights and encouraging our neighbors to do the same. Once a person really sees the night sky, they see how small and fragile our tiny planet is.

I believe that there is something deep down within each of us that wants to snuggle down into the comforting silence of a winter morning. Nature is reminding us to stop and to listen, to let go of our hectic doing and addictive thinking. But, most of us do not stop.

A great many people jump out of bed, chug down a cup of coffee and get out the snow blower. Instead of sitting quietly and listening to the snowflakes gently accumulating on the landscape, they hurry down the highway, joining millions of other motorists on the slippery freeway in an effort to get to work “on time.” A lot of them end up in automobile crashes, some fatal, or in multi-car pile-ups.

We have designed a society in which people must play this monotonous game because it has designed a world that is dependent upon money and consumerism. It has built a system that creates anxiety and fear in the population, where few acknowledge their natural state of simply “being.” It is as though someone has spun the wheel of life, causing it to go faster and faster. True, life is always moving in an ever and onward upward spiral. Life does not and will not stop; but we can control the speed in which we participate in it. We can settle into the serenity of the season and of the moment. We can release all past and future events, thus releasing worry and anxiety. We can allow ourselves to be completely absorbed in “now.” We can stop, breathe slowly, and immerse ourselves in the blissful silence of a winter morning.

Murder is the killing, generally of another human being, in the erroneous belief that the murder’s life is more valuable than that of the other. It is done with total disregard and indifference; often brutally, and often premeditated. Murder sometimes happens “by accident” when the killer is overcome with a fit of rage. Occasionally, it occurs out of self-defense.

We are the apex predator on our planet because we are not preyed upon by other species. The truth is, most of the other apex predators are much bigger and stronger than we are. Because it is rare for them to attack humans, we like to believe that they are less intelligent than we are. Most wild species avoid humans. They, in fact, have just as much intelligence as we have. The biggest difference between us is that their hearts are not filled with hatred. They do not murder out of a sense of superiority. Very few of us kill for survival these days, but we come up with a multitude of reasons to justify our extermination of other species or other groups of humans.

Throughout human history, man has preyed on other species, including his fellow man. While cannibalism has occurred only rarely, our human lust for killing prevails. It dominates our lives in actuality, and also in our stories, our films, and our games. We have violent and competitive sports to fill our idle hours. We seem to be fascinated with death. We have a multitude of television programs about crime solving, crime documentaries, murder mysteries, and even horror. The popularity of long running shows like NCIS and Criminal Minds are evidence of our addiction to the macabre. War stories are ever popular, not to mention those who are obsessed with reenactments of war. We get first hand glimpses of ongoing wars, such as the war in Ukraine, on our nightly news channels.

We do not like to think of ourselves as the blood thirsty predators we are. We pride ourselves on our sensibilities and our civility. We believe ourselves to be domesticated and cultured. We are both repelled and fascinated by death. Our reluctance to admit or accept our own mortality is overlooked, when it comes to the mortality of other species. We are at odds between our desire for life – and our hunger for murder and revenge. Our murdering hearts crave peace; but until we purge society of its addiction to violence, we will never achieve it.