The last week or so, I’ve been cooking for workers hacking the large grass mass that is inside and surrounding the property. Got to get it done because once the dry season hits, people will be lighting fires and if the property isn’t “clean” - fires will roar through, destroying everything in their path.
The workers made a 2-meter wide barrier around the property.
It is astonishing, how nature grows, just consumes all. Kind of like in Guatemala, the large cities being found, just overgrown by 100s of years of jungle. And that will be our fate. Forgotten, nature moving on.
Sure, we get excited by our power, our hubris is unparalleled. We even dream of conquering other planets and reigning lord over everything. Some billionaires want to live forever. But the ants know the truth.
Today, I went to the top corner of the property, the top part of the photo, and began hacking with the machete, a path up to my dog’s grave. I could have asked the workers to do it but my dog, my job.
I haven’t talked much about Marshmallow’s passing last year. And I won’t. It’s for me to work out. I grew up on a farm and I thought I knew all about the cycle of life and death. I’ve killed, carried, buried many animals. But some things you know and some things, the same things, you don’t understand.
So, I hacked and hacked through nature, forcing a man-made path through the tangle of grass, roses, thorns and other assortments of nature’s finest. I appreciated the work of the workers - not easy to swing a machete all day. I thought of Ecclesiastes - trying to find some solace in death, our place here in mother nature’s arms.
I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. 19 Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. 21 Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?” Ecclesiastes - 18-21.
I succeeded clearing some space around his grave but let Marshmallow have some shade but enough light to enjoy the view.
And that’s it - we need to fool ourselves with these fantastical thoughts to survive. It’s part of being human. Otherwise, we are just a photocopy machine. Meant to reproduce, do nature’s bidding and then fade away. Our redemption is in imagination, our compassion - for others but also (often forgotten), for ourselves.
Peekaboo
Now you see it.
Now you don’t see _.
I’ve never understood that.
That magic trick.
Me,
a big-eyed, long-haired kid
wondering how
the rabbit got
inside the hat.
Me,
running to the window
Sunday winter morning
looking out bewildered
wondering where
my snowman went.
The scientists contrive.
The philosophers surmise.
The magicians surprise.
Me?
I’m at a loss.
Here and now
4 am
sitting on the couch
wondering where
yesterday went
and reaching down
to pet my dog
but he’s gone.
Dog gone.
I just don’t get it.
Now he’s here.
Now ‘s gone.