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| Spring?! |
Late last night, as I was arriving home following a hospital visit in Birmingham, the frost was beginning to set in. There was a definite nip in the air, and the minor road that leads past our house had just the first hint of slipperiness.
As I turned into the single track road we actually live on, I flipped onto full beam. I always hope to spot a fox, badger, or deer passing by down the quiet lane.
I don't know why, though - we never see anything but the occasional rabbit. And that's only if you don't count Loz, who's often prowling the hedgerows down the lane, looking for easy prey. We've seen all of these animals, some of them regularly. But never when we turn into the lane in the car.
Yet still, I nearly always wonder if this will be the night, as I did last night.
Of course, there was nothing down the lane...
I pulled into our car park and reversed into my space (it's not really a space, it's just the place where I always park). As I did so, I spotted these shoots in the foot of the hawthorn hedgerow that marks the boundary of our property.
They're daffodils, sprouting early, it seems to me, in anticipation of Spring!
:-)
Three inches tall, with that lovely fresh green colour that new foliage has.
I vowed to get a snap of them before work in the morning, and above is the pleasing result. There's a trace of frost on them, although a bright sun behind them ensures a rapid thaw along this particular hedgerow.
Anyhow, I'm left with mixed emotions...
On the one hand, it's uplifting to see the first traces of new life emerging after the dark, deathly Winter.
On the other, I fear that Winter is yet to show its full hand. It's been so mild, and the last few seasons have been so late, that it seems reasonable to predict that Winter too is behind schedule, and will be with us shortly.
In which case these young daffs are going to struggle to survive.
The changing climate seems more noticeable and has more of an impact each year, or at least, it feels that way.
The debate, somehow, rages on, mainly over whether the change is caused by man.
This seems to be a diversionary tactic. It seems obvious that we have done this, and in any case it's clear that it is happening. Why does it matter whether or not we caused it? Isn't that just about blame?
The debate should be around how we fix it (probably not feasible)...or how we deal with the inevitable sweeping changes the planet is about to undertake (or perhaps has already begun)...or at least about how sensible it is to go on treating the planet as we do.
Nature likes balance. It's just basic maths and physics. These are not man made, they're fundamental properties of reality, so far as we can understand it.
When something gets out of balance within a system, an area of high pressure is created, alongside an equivalent area of low pressure. As the system moves further away from a position of balance, the pressure increases. Eventually, if balance is not restored, and injection of additional pressure is maintained, the system explodes.
Chaos ensues.
Elements within the system swing wildly in number, and volume, and behaviour, in largely unpredictable ways, until balance begins to be restored and the systems starts to settle down again.
We have for too long considered that we are separate to nature, above it, somehow - as though the rules of nature don't apply to us.
And so, we've used technology to push all of Earth's systems a long way out of balance, to support and fuel our short term "progress".
We are not above Nature. The fundamental properties of the Universe apply to us as they apply to all things.
It may be too late the prevent the descent into Chaos...but then balance will slowly be restored, as it was after the dinosaurs. They were wiped out by the immediate injection of a colossal amount of pressure in a very short time frame, when the comet hit what we now know as the Gulf of Mexico.
We've spread the insertion of a similar amount of pressure over a century or so. Taking all that coal and oil out of the ground and burning it on the surface...how is that not immensely unbalancing?!
I think I shall rein in the rant, as it could go on, and it's late.
Essentially, I think we've made a mess of the planet, and I think Nature will attempt to deselect us, and I even think that's probably a good thing.
It certainly would be from the perspective of all the other species.
Like these poor daffodils, that can no longer read the weather...
But don't let all that depress you.
Rather, simply Be in the moment...enjoy the silence...see the beauty in tiny shoots and rays of light...love yourself and all in your world (that's all everything, not just all humans, or all of your family...all everything).
Do these things, and you will know peace and contentment.
PS Here's a bonus pic that I took of the same hedgerow....well, the hole I cut in it that we use to sneak directly into the field... ;-)
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