There is a language of nature that whispers in every moment of life, it is a language of sustenance and abundance. It is made up of immutable laws that resound across the universe forming the bedrock of the physical nature of everything which cannot be ignored or subverted. We are beholden to those laws in every breath we take and every move we make and every thought we have. Nature is always true to itself and is the proving ground and bedrock of science. If nature rejects a hypothesis, it is the hypothesis that is wrong, never nature.
It is vitally important that we pay attention to nature and begin to listen to what we have hitherto taken for granted. Human kind has got ahead of itself, thinking itself to be the master of all things. Dominating and abusing, instead of husbanding and nurturing. Taking and not giving back.
An ecosystem is a community of living organisms in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment, interacting as a system [1]. Healthy ecosystems operate and function in balance, if they get out of balance for any reason the results can be catastrophic and nature always seeks to address the imbalance and return to order and stability. The Earth is a closed system of finite resources and of all natures creatures, only human kind abuses that system and is depleting nature at an alarming rate, gouging the Earth in an orgy of consumption for profit.
It’s time to stop, pay attention, observe and listen. Most of us have no idea what that even means and for too many people this is nonsensical, not understanding what is real any more. Consuming has become a human disease, desiring the latest ‘thing’ to hit the market, or ‘designer’ clothes and accessories, without any thought or consideration of what provides every single thing we use in such profligate lifestyles. We are taught to want more but never consider when we might have enough. A modest ambition is far better than a grand one, and to know when we’ve achieved it and to be content with what we have. Consuming is an addiction which one way or another leads to bloated obesity within our bodies or the space we live in and what we ‘own’. Moderation is a dirty word when everything is predicated on consumption and profit. We learn the price of everything but not its true value in nature, which we can only learn when we stop consuming for the sake of it, whilst poverty in a land of plenty is violence.
As a teenager a friend and poet dedicated a poem to me which is seared in my memory like a mantra:
I could watch the sea forever,
it would feed me like the crab,
but man he is to clever,
what left have we from grab?
grope, grope, but never find,
that which comes with waiting,
peace of mind.
Gordon Phillips.
Which says it all really.
Keith Lindsay-Cameron aka KOG. 02 November 2020.
[1] https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/ecosystem/
Conspiracy of Kindness 