By Susan Sprout
I am a curious sort…purposefully looking at things and thinking about them…pondering. Sometimes I sit at my desk to write, look out the window toward the maple tree, and ponder. When will the seeds be ready to take flight?
When it rains, watching the soil absorb the wet under my muddy boots. Can this wetland remain here and be vibrant next year?
Bird feeders down and cloroxed to stave off an unknown bird epizootic. Will our feathered friends be able to return?
Morning fog both cloaks things from our view and surprisingly, reveals others at the same time. Like spider webs in the grass or looking up, the air webs hanging between the parallel phone and electric lines, hundreds of them, spun to snare flying insects, and brought into visual discrimination by clinging moisture. Will they last or be pulled down by the wet, to be respun tomorrow?
Ephemeral: here today and gone tomorrow.
Folks talk about “rewilding”- the intentional practice of restoring native plants in various rural, suburban and urban settings to reverse habitat loss, support ecosystems, and bring nature back into our daily lives.
That’s great! But in the process, let us hope that we can actually rewild our brains: to really see when we look, to be curious when we think deep thoughts, to be thankful when we enjoy, to take care of each other and those life forms sharing the planet as they take care of us. We all are, in reality, ephemeral!