Swan Sanctuary

What is it about the morning sun that feels so delightful? People often buy houses that provide them with a view. Many want to be able to look out at mountain tops from their windows. Others want an ocean view or a lake or a beautiful sunset to gaze upon.

I have lived in too many places where I had too few windows. I have seldom lived in houses from which I could enjoy the morning sun streaming in. Now that I am well into my sixth decade, I am no longer willing to be deprived of that which my soul craves – to be warmed by the morning sun. Sometimes, I think I can see joy emanating from my houseplants. Most plants prefer the morning sun, as well. The midday sun is too intense for most and the late afternoon sun can burn. The birds and chickens rise at daybreak because they do not want to miss a single moment of those first sacred hours of daylight.

I too, like to savor the morning sun whenever I can. I often envy my cat as I watch him curled up, asleep in its primordial warmth. The morning sun warms the body. It immerses the soul in blissful peace. It gives us a reason to begin each new day.

Most of us are familiar with the colorful ads we receive in our mailboxes every week. These generally end up in the trash, although a few more conscious individuals will recycle them. These are not anything that we have subscribed to or requested, but they arrive like clockwork each Tuesday or Wednesday. As far as I know, there is no way of unsubscribing from the mailing list from which they are sent.

The flier that arrived yesterday has a separate half sheet attached to the outside of one of the regular advertisements – a total of four half pages consisting of 10 Scott’s® products, 16 Miracle-Gro® products, 13 Ortho® products, and 9 Roundup® products. If you visit a garden center or home improvement store this time of year you will find huge displays of gallon sized bottles filled with lethal, toxic chemicals. Manufacturers are betting the odds that you will purchase at least one of these products before you get out the door.

I live in a small town surrounded by ranches and farms where herbicides and pesticides have become the law of the land and are used as profusely as table sugar or salt. The residents do not question the morality, the safety, or the sanity of what has become common practice. I have heard the words, “you environmentalists” spoken, or actually spat, from the mouths of unknowing people as though it was a profanity. Two hundred years ago our ancestors raised animals and grew gardens without harmful chemicals. Why have we convinced ourselves that we need them now?

While living here, I have counted at least fifteen bird species in my yard. Thirteen of those are insect eaters. The Northern flicker, a woodpecker species, subsists entirely on insects, especially ants and beetles. Robins prefer worms, insects, and fruit. Blackbirds, blue jays, hawks, and bluebirds eat grasshoppers; and chickens find them quite delectable. There may be more birds in the area that dine on insects. There should be more. Every day; however, people are spraying and fogging and eliminating anything and everything that crawls or flies. They are making it increasingly difficult for birds that rely on insects to supply their protein needs, to survive. Often the birds die from eating a poisoned insect. More and more humans are becoming ill from auto-immune diseases and cancers. Animals, birds, and humans continue to get sick and die because we allow the makers of dangerous poisons to sell their products. They are laughing all the way to the bank.

Perhaps it is the gardener in me, but whenever I see pictures of Covid-19 on the news, it looks a bit like a flower; or more accurately, a large ball with a lot of tiny little red and yellow flowers coming out of it. It is similar in a way, to alliums. If you have ever looked at the elongated blossom on a butterfly bush or a lilac, you will see that there are several diminutive blossoms growing in a cluster that looks like one big bloom. These are perfect for butterflies, to extend their long proboscis into each little blossom, in order to extract the nectar. Umbels, like Queen Anne’s lace, parsley, carrot, dill, caraway, and fennel have flowers that are shaped somewhat like a parasol. They have hundreds of miniature flowers emerging from a central core. The proper scientific name and the family into which these lacy florets have been designated, is Apiaceae or, Umbelliferae. They are the ideal size and shape on which butterflies can land and partake of the sustenance they provide. If you want to have butterflies visit your garden, provide plants belonging to the umbel family.

Nature has designed the perfect food sources and habitat for every insect and the predator to keep them from becoming invasive. The insect eating birds help to keep the insect population in balance. The predatory birds like hawks, along with snakes and some mammals, keep the bird populations in check. In most cases the predator is larger in size than its prey; but it has taken a microscopic predator to slow our human growth. Every life form has come into existence to serve a purpose. I see Covid-19 as the seed, to the flowering of our humanity.

As humans, we all want predictability. We want stability and certainty. We want to be able to relax into a sense of safety. From the moment we leave our mother’s womb, we seek the comfort of her breast. Every time we move away from it and the big, wide world frightens us, we wish to return to it. We need a sense of security, however false or temporary it may be.

After we have reached adulthood we can no longer return to our mother’s protective arms. We must navigate the often treacherous landscape of life on our own. For those whose mothers have provided them with a healthy reserve of esteem and whose fathers had stood as loving role models, it may have been easy to attain success, his achievements giving him a sense of power. She may have discovered an inner source of strength, or she may have relied on a marriage to provide the safety she craved. After some time, life’s ever changing movement may have brought the carefully constructed life tumbling down. On a personal level this happens every day to individuals. The person now feels that he is a victim. He may turn to cigarettes, alcohol, drugs (or all three) to replicate the confidence he felt as a child. She may look for an escape or manifest cancer or sink into a deep depression, not knowing how to find the loving arms that once comforted her.

Today, it is more than our personal lives crumbling beneath our feet. It is the collective lives and the masses of people who have lost control and their safety net has disappeared. The sun is still rising and setting. The weeks march onward, but the atmosphere has changed. Our belief that we could control our destinies has been thwarted by an unseen enemy. It is the isolation and the uncertainty that allows fear its stranglehold on millions of people. We had been lured into a false sense of assurance and narrowed vision. If we observe the life around us; however, we see birds nesting and tending their young. They do not concern themselves about tomorrow. We see daffodils pushing up towards the sunlight. We see the ever-changing clouds. We must become like them – accept the moment, accept not knowing what tomorrow may bring. Tomorrow will evolve based on what we think and believe and do today.  What can we do today? We can be content with uncertainty. We can spread love, light, joy, and hope today.

On some level we knew our carbon footprint was over the top. We knew the air pollution was still a problem. We knew that there were too many people, too much asphalt, too much concrete, and too much garbage. We knew the crowded freeways and the road rage was accelerating. We knew there were better ways to deal with stress than smoking cigarettes, drinking, and taking drugs. We knew there weren’t as many butterflies as we had remembered. We knew the problems facing our world were numerous. We knew we should be recycling. We knew…

We were always so busy trying to stay one step ahead of our own personal disasters. We did not see it coming. Or, maybe we saw it coming, but we chose to look away. We chose not to see because we believed we could do nothing. We were on a merry-go-round that would not stop. We did not know how to stop it. We did not know how we could make a difference.

The merry-go-round has stopped. We did not have to do it. Many will step off of it now. They will look around and see that our world has changed. It has not ended. We will begin again on a personal level and on a global level. Humanity as a whole will begin to restructure and to view our place in the world from a different perspective. Perhaps more people will continue to work from home. Perhaps more children will be home schooled. Neighbors may become more neighborly. Others will look at their back yards in an entirely new way. The possibilities are endless. We need only to open our eyes.

Admittedly, I rarely turn on the news since it only incites fear and panic in the masses. The death toll in some countries has been so high that they are allowing only cremation to dispose of the bodies. In Iran, bodies have become so numerous that they have resorted to mass graves. Morgues are filling up in New York City with bodies kept in cold storage, possibly for months, until funeral preparations can be made. It seems to me that given the aggressive nature of COVID-19, people need to put their religious views aside. Preparations which would normally be made to a body, so that it can be displayed for a funeral, endanger the embalmers and everyone who must come in contact with that body. I understand how a mass grave would be convenient when dealing with an overwhelming number of bodies, but the only thing that truly makes sense and to ensure the virus does not live, is cremation.

The media generally focuses on the numbers of cases, the need for more equipment, the economic collapse, and stay-at-home orders. People are losing loved ones and on top of this sudden shift in life as we have known it, those left behind by those who have died are dealing with shock, sadness, and grief. I have seen nothing on the news that addresses their emotional loss. These people may not be getting the closure that they need and they may be feeling like they have been forgotten. Perhaps the dead have left behind pets that now have to go to shelters. While we are social distancing, let’s not forget about those people who have lost someone to the virus. We can find ways to reach out to the grief stricken through letters, cards, emails and phone calls.

Today the number of confirmed cases in the U.S. is over 4,000, but more than 8,000 have survived its deadly assault. If you have a strong immune system and yet you still succumb to Coronavirus, you have a 50/50 chance of overcoming it. This is good news. Let’s focus on that and instead of getting consumed by fear, let’s reach out to another person or abandoned pet and ask ourselves each day, how we may serve in this time of great need.

I saw my first robin of spring a week ago. It was enjoying a long drink from the bird bath. I have heard it singing a few times since then and I saw it hunting insects in the afternoon, amid the emerging grass. The starlings are still taking food to their young, which will probably be fledging soon. The weather is warming into the upper 50° F. and a thunderstorm is expected this afternoon, lulling us into the false belief that spring has arrived. Winter seems to enjoy the April fool’s joke it plays on this part of the country every year. By tomorrow the rain will have turned to snow and we will have several inches of the wet, slushy white stuff before it is through.

Some flowers do not seem to mind April’s flirtatious game of hide and seek. They don’t bother looking for her since they know she will eventually come out of hiding. Crocus, daffodils, and tulips push upwards, their rich green leaves so brilliant against the dull brown of winter’s refuse. They are determined to bring forth their vibrant yellows, reds, and blues even through the snow.

The birds and flowers that struggle for survival, with unmatched tenacity and determination, are an inspiration, helping me to see the good in every situation – even this current one that has turned our human lives upside down. The falling apart of one season gives birth to the next. Our economy, our jobs, and our way of life seem to be dissolving before our very eyes; but beneath the surface of our visible world, something new and beautiful is being born.