CONNECT THE DOTS

 

Lytton, Now and Then
Fire Department photo

I.

What will it take for us to understand
that the health of a river, a forest,
a species, is deeply connected
to our own - that our physical
and spiritual selves,
our cities and villages,
air, and sky, creatures and plants
large and small, are all interwoven,
that we struggle and suffer and die,
or flourish,  bud and grow,
in equal measure to how we humans
live upon the earth?

We walk in fragile beauty
with blind eyes. We accept
unthinkingly, all Mother Earth
has to give. 

The temperature climbs up and up.
The trees keep coming down.
The sea warms up, and octopuses
walk out of the sea to die upon the beach.
"Too hot!" gasps Salmon, as the small fry
shrivel on dry riverbeds. "Too hungry!" says Bear,
thin and gaunt along the water's edge.
"Too many of you!" says Wolf,
habitat gone, and with no place to hide.

"We are all one" indigenous elders say.
"Trees and animals are our relatives.
Water is Life, and sacred. 
If we protect the earth,
she will protect us."
They watch with sad eyes 
at the planet burning up,
at wildlife fleeing the flames
in terror. The rest of us
make a lot of noise,
so we can't hear; we stay
too busy, so we can ignore
the mounting peril.

It is becoming too clear
to deny: we have passed
the tipping point.

When we understand that one day
our town, too, will burn; when
grocery shelves stay empty because
the crops all died; when water
is our most essential need 
and it is scarce - will we then
connect the dots and moan:
"Too late. Too late."?

Stay tuned. Humankind
is waking up in the middle
of a bad dream.
What we need to change
is Everything.

Our best hope is to unite our voices across the planet, in numbers significant enough that governments can't ignore us; to speak with force considerable enough to out-shout the corporate criminals who now hold governments in their sway; to vote climate deniers out and climate warriors in. Right now, it's not looking good. My friend holds onto her belief that the transformation of consciousness will occur in response to the crises coming towards us one after another. It is a shame we didn't transform in time to prevent what is unfolding. Humans have always been slow learners, for all we think we're so smart.