Nature as Nature Intended

It was a perfectly delightful morning in the D.C. area with temps in the mid 60s , somewhat overcast, and a spray of a soft mist in the air. Perhaps that's not everyone's idea of a delightful spring morning, but to someone who was brought up to make her way through the heavy fogs of New England, it felt more like home to me - more so, at least, than the humid heat of the Mid-Atlantic region where I have become implanted, feeling somewhat like a uprooted plant placed in foreign soil.

My little dog, Skippy, and I began our morning escapades heading toward the opposite end of town where a little path winds its way through the urban mess surrounded by trees and wild - just the reprieve from the buzz around me that I was looking for. As we entered the urban retreat, the loud cranking of cranes working hard to put one more story upon a growing building nearby became more and more muffled and the filthy smell of carbon fumes from passing cars was swept away, leaving the hope of sweet silence ahead.

Step by step, Skippy and I distanced ourselves from the clanking and clattering to enter a world where the wild lives side by side with the hazards of humankind, yet they do with grace and dignity and somehow seem to cope with urban life better than I seem able to do at this point. Not far into our journey, we came across a little jack rabbit who took one look at us and scooted across the path like it seen a ghost. Did we really look that strange? Actually, it I only looked half as strange as I have felt in this urbane mess that we call the nation's capital, it would be quite scary. If I saw me coming, I'd probably run, too!

Skippy seemed oblivious to the bunny hopping going on around him, but kept his nose to the ground and was rather taken by the exotic sniffs of uncultured nature. How sweet it was to enter a world where grass grew wild without mounds of stinking mulch to suffocate passer bys. Nature as nature intended! Such a treat!

Cardinal bird and Phoebe greeted us at the mid-point of the path. Redheaded with chest swollen in song, he announced our presence and the Phoebe sang back softly in confirmation. The trees seemed to shiver slightly as we walked along, shaking their buds gently, awakening them to spring. Some of the foliage had a head start on the Season of Renewal and were dressed in pastel green with droplets of dew sprinkled on their wear, shimmering like diamond studs. And, finally, the air seemed to sweeten with the smell of nature as it was intended - without the mulch and pesticides that man (and woman) use to enhance their lawns and gardens, ultimately leading to the destruction and death of the wildlife around them and to the detriment of their own health and wellbeing. We were finally far enough away from the city breathe comfortably!

The path brought me into a world that I sorely miss ... a world where the air is clean and fresh and wildlife feel safe to roam. Their world within ours is a haven for now, a band-aid that serves an immediate purpose of providing space for man and creature to escape from the insanity and poisons on the outside: a short-term fix. But, the day will ultimately come when neither man nor nature will be comforted with a short-term fix. For the cranes continue to rattle, putting stories upon stories; and the poisons continue to be laid down to make the grass "greener"; and the fumes continue to take our breath away.

The sweet sound of silence that I found in this micro-world will one day be consumed, too. And the life within (and without) will be changed forevermore.