This morning there was news about a report on the state of things, from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Conversations about this are happening in the newspapers and on the radio.

It seems like things are heating up in here.

*

Life on Earth is stubbornly resilient.

It also exists within this delicate balance of environmental conditions that it needs to have, in order to survive.

The best science we’ve got is telling us to stop fucking messing with that balance, because we’re already losing it, teetering, swaying dangerously, and now we have built up enough momentum that there might not be a way to slow it down.

People tell me that the planet is actively dying

the bird was flying too fast when it hit the window and the only thing to do is give it somewhere comfortable to be and

The planet under my feet is made of rocks and dust, and she will go on spinning through outer space for a good long time, no matter what happens to the life that exists on her back. Astronomers think there is probably going to be a moment sometime in the distant future when the Earth falls into the sun, and maybe that’s another kind of dying.

But I think that death, in some ways, belongs to the living

Death belongs to the sparrows and the crickets, and the dandelions, the terriers, tabby cats, whales, trout, chipmunks, swans, herons, bees, monkeys, oysters, kelp, bears, snakes, spiders, bats, mushrooms, moss, and human beings

Queen anne’s lace, and goldenrod and yarrow, plantain and clover and black eyed susan and burdock and sunflowers and ferns

The oak trees and the pumpkins, and the blue corn and the beans

All these things that came into being because once, in the very beginning, carbon and nitrogen and oxygen and hydrogen held hands and danced in interesting ways

It would a be such a shame to see those things go, because they are beautiful. Every single one of those endings is a sad ending, a tough goodbye, and a great loss.

But everything is temporary. In order for a word to be spoken out loud, there has to be silence before, and silence afterwards.

I am thinking about the weeds growing up through the cracks of a pavement, in the most polluted city in the world.

Life is resilient.

*

There will be other moments to talk about what we can do, about how to take care of each other when the weather is bad, when the fires are burning and the rain won’t come, or when the flood just washed away somebody’s home.

There will be other moments for sitting down and learning more about what the science is telling us right now, and what it all means

There will be other times to talk about how to stop fucking with this delicate balance.

*

For right now… late last night, or early this morning, there was news about a report on the state of things

And I just needed to let that land on me, and let it move through.

I hope it’s a good night.

“Baseline perception of reality is a playground for the devil and the sicked

We, just as Jesus, perservere in the face of the wicked

Some are, or have become, as crazy as all hell

A life of endless wanting is a life of never well.

Before it’s too late we much fix what is not right

Do unto others what you would like

What you would like done unto you

And act in full contemplation of what true love would, or would not do

Whether you are a corporation, government, or a person.”

~ Jeb Puryear