It is not just floods, of course, that are having such an effect upon our Planet, but, currently, fire also and I do not forget the devastation and pain that has been wreaked in the US and Canada on humans and nature through heat and flame. For me, however, as participant and observer of the power of the element of Water, I have been shocked sometimes by its ferocity and saddened as birds, insects and mammals struggle to survive. There is great loss, and it is becoming the subject of some media attention, belatedly but deservedly.
In the UK our news this weekend has been dominated by the Olympics and political squabbles, and the continuing heavy floods in large parts of Britain have gone largely unremarked, being old news now. On Saturday I travelled across the country from East to West to attend a family wedding in Cambridge, and for some of the journey drove through roads which had become rivers, by rivers which were miles wide and countryside which looked like paddy fields in China. I saw people forlornly brushing water out of their front door and crowds of residents gathered at high points to look in awe at their changed landscape. And yesterday, in southern Japan, a year’s worth of water fell in one day……..None of this is headline news now, but articles are starting to appear speculating instead about the welfare of wildlife in all of this, and they are gloomy.
I hate to see nature suffer, and my heart goes out to them as I watch the bats forage in the rain and dragonflies being pounded, and see birds give up as they try to feed their young when there is no food for them. Many species will find their numbers greatly reduced and it will take time to build them up again. However, nature has chosen it to be this way and nature will help these creatures to recover and adapt in ways that will be perfect for them even if it takes a period of adjustment. The Planet is undergoing dramatic changes in the physical as well as the spiritual, and it must be that all her occupants are affected.
We humans are quite rigid and demanding of how our lives should be and will find it far harder to see that we are in a new era and that the old way of life is passing. By contrast wildlife is accepting, always, of how it is in the moment; it does not ask why but reflects on how instead, which is why it will survive better than us. While we feel concern for its welfare and do what we can to help it overcome the effects of flooding and fire, we can be heartened too as we remember its resilience, and we can learn.]]>
