My love of nature is a core part of my soul essence.

It is difficult to see it harmed. On one of my daily walks with my dog, Foo, we headed out toward the new law and courts building. By the time we passed the beautiful new medical clinic, I could see the white of the tail and soft beige fur lying motionless in front of the library. Oh no, it looked like a deer, whose fate brought it into collision with a vehicle. This usually ends poorly for both participants.

As we neared the scene, I sucked in my breath, heartbroken. It was worse than I imagined. The beautiful doe lay on her side, lifeless, her back leg, broken and bent, her fur missing in spots, her eye staring lifelessly at the endless blue sky. But the bigger tragedy lay a few feet behind her. An unborn fawn, expelled after impact. It’s embryonic sac, like a covering of cellophane wrap, still there, still allowing the sweet white spots to show, but having failed miserably at protecting it from fate. As a woman who knows the pain of miscarriage, seeing this can bring memories best left buried.

We walked on, even Foo, seemed to feel the sadness. I checked into who would remove the bodies as I didn’t want to look at them again. I was told by a kind sheriff that it is gruesome but they usually let nature takes its course, if MDOT doesn’t remove them first, that is. He stated the turkey vultures would do what they were supposed to.

This actually gave me some comfort, for I totally love turkey vultures. They may not be considered beautiful by conventional standards, but they can ride those thermals like no one else can. Their spread arms embrace the heavens above and below. They are nature’s recyclers. One more huge plus in my book. For if there is anything I abhor more than the unnatural death of an animal, it is the utter disregard of our planet, our home, our mother earth.

We live in such a throw away society of plastic convenience and packaged protection that we are accustomed to food far, far removed from the soil and much more in line with a plastic garbage can, both internally and externally. I’m truly nonplussed by the bottles, wrappers, containers and trash strewn along the ditches, the shorelines, the sidewalks and even in the forest.

This is not letting nature take its course. This is we, as the technologically advanced race we believe ourselves to be, taking the steering wheel away from nature and driving ourselves right into a collision of extinction. You can’t eat plastic, you can’t drink oil, you can’t buy a new earth after you’ve destroyed this one with chemicals. Each individual must take care of this Earth, the one we’ve been borrowed.

It’s simple. Don’t be a litterbug, be a turkey vulture. recycle, reuse, reduce and repurpose. Don’t walk past the discarded trash, pick it up, better yet, don’t throw it there in the first place.

Nature is very good at speaking to us, if we pause to listen.

“If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.” —  Albert Einstein

The bees are dying… neonicotinoids are no replacement for sustainable, organic practices that worked for millennia. http://www.xerces.org/neonicotinoids-and-bees/ Isn’t it time to let nature take its course? Isn’t it time we stopped making it so difficult?

 

CeeCee Wilson, is the organizer of Cass Can Community and the writer/photographer of Quirky Bella.