The developers in my town have torn down a strip of my childhood. The trees have been killed, as have the animals who called their canopies home. I reflect on this strange new world.
Right there with you in sharing your grief. As I watch large swaths of rural land fall to developers on our small island, I am stunned at the lack of accountability and blind disrespect for the impact on resources and wild life. It’s happening everywhere. All living creatures are connected through food, air, and clean water. Thank you for sharing. I am reminded to keep planting and speaking out for our beautiful planet.
I think it's more dire than any nostalgia or sentiment can express. People forget that we *are* the ecosystem, the biosphere; we are animals and symbiotic communities. Every species that's lost from our greed is an organ lost to our collective body; every community or habitat that's destroyed is limb amputated. When I was small in the 1950s, when we went on road trips, the windshield would be covered in squashed insects. Insects are to a biome what blood cells are to our bodies. Now a days there are few stains left of our furious velocity. The ecosystem is anemic.
I too remember Ferngully, and all the films that serve as cautionary tales. I also remember a pond that I grew up near, that my friends would find turtles at and I took home once and kept under my bed in a box until my parents told me to take it back. I'm thinking about the swaths of rainforest that are destroyed so that those of us privileged enough to eat, can eat more.
A fern gully we are in mired up to our knees. We can see the trees shade our sorrows and what about our morrows? Culverts collapse; sewage seeps deeper into our coffee grounds. Best is the latter feeds earthworms to recycle times past to provide nutrients to preserved past times that recover the moments people alive try to hide from plastic developers shovel nose slug fest debris left in wake’s that sleep with no dreams fleeced by unsuspecting sheep.
this made me think of a recent Joy Williams story I read, "The Beach House."
She writes, "A turtle staggered from the waves, wearily dug a shallow hole, and commenced to drop her lovely eggs. Amber had no wish to witness this; she could no longer bear to watch struggling nature. She shut her eyes, feeling that the very act of not looking was helping the turtle out in some way."
Something about the phrase "struggling nature" just really caught me... it is hard to not look away, but I think pieces like yours are important in urging this witnessing, and hopefully the witnessing galvanizes us into action.
breathtaking - thank you for this. I feel mourning with you
Beautifully sad. Thank you, Alex.
So sad about the strip of your childhood being torn down. Sorry to hear.
Right there with you in sharing your grief. As I watch large swaths of rural land fall to developers on our small island, I am stunned at the lack of accountability and blind disrespect for the impact on resources and wild life. It’s happening everywhere. All living creatures are connected through food, air, and clean water. Thank you for sharing. I am reminded to keep planting and speaking out for our beautiful planet.
awhhh 😭😭😭 i’m with you!!! let me message my sisters. walked in the rain today, got soaked but i kind of liked it 🌱✨🐞💗
I think it's more dire than any nostalgia or sentiment can express. People forget that we *are* the ecosystem, the biosphere; we are animals and symbiotic communities. Every species that's lost from our greed is an organ lost to our collective body; every community or habitat that's destroyed is limb amputated. When I was small in the 1950s, when we went on road trips, the windshield would be covered in squashed insects. Insects are to a biome what blood cells are to our bodies. Now a days there are few stains left of our furious velocity. The ecosystem is anemic.
I too remember Ferngully, and all the films that serve as cautionary tales. I also remember a pond that I grew up near, that my friends would find turtles at and I took home once and kept under my bed in a box until my parents told me to take it back. I'm thinking about the swaths of rainforest that are destroyed so that those of us privileged enough to eat, can eat more.
This is heartbreaking.
A fern gully we are in mired up to our knees. We can see the trees shade our sorrows and what about our morrows? Culverts collapse; sewage seeps deeper into our coffee grounds. Best is the latter feeds earthworms to recycle times past to provide nutrients to preserved past times that recover the moments people alive try to hide from plastic developers shovel nose slug fest debris left in wake’s that sleep with no dreams fleeced by unsuspecting sheep.
this made me think of a recent Joy Williams story I read, "The Beach House."
She writes, "A turtle staggered from the waves, wearily dug a shallow hole, and commenced to drop her lovely eggs. Amber had no wish to witness this; she could no longer bear to watch struggling nature. She shut her eyes, feeling that the very act of not looking was helping the turtle out in some way."
Something about the phrase "struggling nature" just really caught me... it is hard to not look away, but I think pieces like yours are important in urging this witnessing, and hopefully the witnessing galvanizes us into action.