What I don’t know can easily drive me to paralysis. But if I had to know everything I’d encounter on my next step, I could not move a single step. A good friend shared this beautiful quote from John Muir, a reminder of why I trust this universe to be the relatively stable place it is. Life does a great job—usually anyway— of moving slowly or at least accommodating sudden changes, even if the path can be rough for us as individuals.

Clearly a more destabilizing and rapid pace of change has happened in the 20th century and even more noticeably in the past several months. Still I find it important to remember that we are approaching the Spring Equinox as the Planet has for millions of years. While an overcast day may make it less visible, COVID-19 won’t make a dent in where the sun is that day just as it won’t keep the high summer sun from drifting down through the trees in Hubbard Park.

Many plants and animals of all kinds will be aware in some fashion of where the sun is, and that reality will shape the rest of the year for them. Turtles know! Dragonflies know!! The Vernal Witch Hazel outside the window, blooming now—impossibly—knows. The universe knows, even if in our small corner of it, I might sometimes forget.

I live under the same Sun as all of these things, and in the same web of life, and, though disaster can strike me as an individual, though I know we’ve tilted the Planet off kilter in so many ways, I also know the web will endure.

16 Mar This entry was published on March 16, 2020 at 1:42 pm. It’s filed under Ecosystem, Hubbard Park, John Snell, John Snell Photographer, Photograph, Vermont, www.johnsnell.photography and tagged Corona virus, CORVID-19, dragonflies, John Muir, turtles, Vermont, web of life, Witch Hazel, www.johnsnell.photography. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.