Friday, April 11, 2008

Ribbit

Perhaps it is because I grew up in a city, where the only animals we came in contact with were our pets and the only wild creatures were earthworms and ladybugs. Perhaps it can be ascribed to my perpetual sense of child-like wonder. It is certainly due in part to my appreciation of all creation as miraculous, diverse, interconnected, and precious.

"It" is the absolute kick I get out of waking up to a new surprise from nature every day; yesterday, my gift was this enormous bullfrog sitting on the front lawn when I left the house.


His body was at least 6" across. I stooped down to take a closer look. "Good Morning there! How are you?" I smiled. He blinked, quite unperturbed, and replied, "Wrrrok".

I wished him plentiful insects to eat and a moist, shady place to rest and went on my way. He was gone by the time I returned, but I heard a bullfrog chorus ringing loud and clear from the pond at 4 o'clock this morning and thought of my little friend. I can count on him to help keep down the insect population, and he can count on me to make sure his pond-side habitat remains undisturbed. We are, together, part of the great web of life on this planet.

In human terms, my husband and I are the owners of 2 acres of land. In reality, we are merely caretakers of it; the land will outlast us, and receive our bones after we have one day breathed our last.

There is no quiet place in the cities.
No place to hear the unfurling of leaves in spring
or the rustle of the insect's wings.
The clatter only seems to insult the ears.
And what is there to life if a man cannot hear
the lonely cry of the whippoorwill
or the arguments of the frogs around the pond at night?

The air is precious to man
for all things share the same breath;
the beast, the tree, the man,
they all share the same breath.
You must remember that the air is precious,
that the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports.

All things are connected.
Whatever befalls the earth
befalls the sons of earth.
If men spit upon the ground,
they spit upon themselves.

This we know;
the earth does not belong to man.
All things are connected
like the blood which unites one family.

The earth is precious to Him,
and to harm the earth
is to heap contempt on its Creator.
~Chief Seattle

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