As many of you my loyal readers know, I am a lover of nature; the world is a breathing entity of organisms, plants, and animals. My eyes are wide open to all things beautiful and I enjoy admiring any creature that comes into my space.
The other day I was driving home from an errand and saw to my surprise a doe and an antlered stag. I didn’t count the points but I felt certain it was at least a ten-point buck. The doe stood to one side while the buck laid on the grass of someone’s front lawn in front of their house. It is scenes like this, rare but yet not so rare. The other day a buck walked leisurely in front of the house I’m living at presently. It was early morning and I’m certain I was the only one up that early.
Another time at work, I walked by the smokers’ shack between the hotel and the casino and spied a Praying Mantis perched on the wall, camouflaged the same general hue as the wall; a beige-like color that most everyone missed until I pointed it out. Unfortunately, the next morning I came to work and discovered the creature had been crushed by someone’s shoe. Apparently another person didn’t see the mantas in the same way as I do; just another pest to destroy.
Yesterday afternoon there was a brush fire in a wooded area in a place near where I live called Palisades Park. I felt sad because those animals were running away from the fire because it’s their natural instinct for survival. Obviously the trees that were burned or scorched will slowly succumb to disease and die because their natural antibodies were compromised just as ours are if a similar fate should ever happen. Eventually the animals will return as well as the insects, and new plants will emerge from the ashes.
It is after all a part and parcel of our own life cycle of our biosphere. We all see this wonderful thing called life, the nature of it and the beauty of it and then one day we won’t because our own body will die and decay and become a part of this thing called nature.
Jerry Schellhammer 