"The earth we abuse and the living things we kill will, in the end, take their revenge; for in exploiting their presence, we are diminishing our future."--Marya Mannes, 1958
The above words were written 52 years ago. Are they now beginning to come true? It's been a strange summer; no, I take that back...it's been a strange few years...from the warm snowless winters to the seemingly almost constant rainfall to last year's cool summer and now this unbearable heat and humidity that has started early and is showing no signs of ending soon. Is Mother Earth taking her revenge? No, she is far too kind for that, but perhaps what she is doing is giving us a jolt, trying to wake us up before we destroy everything altogether.
Saturday was my bi-weekly food shopping day. I always go early in the morning to get it out of the way. Well, when I turned the corner and neared the park, I was nearly shocked right out of my shoes. Why, if it wasn't for the heat and humidity, I would have sworn we had skipped right through summer and entered the fall. Leaves of all shades of brown, red, yellow, and orange were covering the sidewalk, crunching under my feet as I walked by. Then, looking up, I saw that there were many more leaves of various shades....far from the lucious green you would expect at this time of the year.
"When all the trees have been cut down,
when all the animals have been hunted,
when all the waters are polluted,
when all the air is unsafe to breathe,
only then will you discover that you cannot eat money."
--Cree Prophesy--
"Humankind has not woven the web of life.
We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves,
All things are bound together.
All things connect."
--Chief Seattle, 1854--
Like you I don't think Mother Earth is out for revenge. I think Erath is starting to heal itself, and gentle or not, it may hurt us. But then, we effed up the planet first. :(
ReplyDeleteDon't know much about possums either, but I've got one that comes around my yard, too. I believe they are nocturnal and I've been told they forage for bugs. It was the first time I'd ever seen one that close (thru a window). I'm kind of surprised he stayed in the yard as long as he did after he tripped the motion light on.
ReplyDeleteI do hope your possum didn't harm the kittens.
I noticed the leaves changing color here in Jersey as well. Hubby said it's because of the non-existent rain and heatwave. The trees are actually dying.
ReplyDeleteWe are getting dark clouds, thunder....no rain.
ReplyDeleteHear the storm warnings, batten down the hatches & wait.
Heard of flash flooding in other towns.
We would just like to share some of what they got. ;0)
Temp is 83 at 7:52 p.m. w/63% humidity
Beautiful solstice picture.
A Manhattan solstice. What do you know? Maybe there is hope for us yet!
ReplyDeletePossum's are scavengers not predators. They are one of the garbage collectors of the wild. Although not pretty, they help by ridding nature of it's dead critters. They do like cat and dog food, so that may draw them to an urban area. We have had some in our little town off and on. X.
ReplyDeleteOur weather here has been really weird. Thunder storms and 95 plus, the humidity is so high it makes it hard to breathe. Sure hope that this doesn't last all summer. Last summer started out with 100 plus for the first couple of weeks, but then it settled down. Not so sure about what this summer is going to bring. The solstice picture is gorgeous.
ReplyDelete(((HUGS)))