I HEAR THE EARTH CALLING

Last weekend's nor'easter shook me. The angry wind; rain hitting the windows as incessant fingers tapping, and flickering lights warning of intermittent power outages that would follow all day. We're used to these storms on Cape Cod, but later in the season and not with such vehemence.

Like the scratches on my window panes, this gale left scars. My mind tossed and turned, trying to find a way to avoid the pain. What will happen? Should I end or continue with what had become a shadow, remnant? I then knew he wouldn't fight to save us or work to move us forward. He couldn't and I wouldn't blame him for that. No, I decided. The pushing and shoving in my head ceased.

More so, the storm had served its purpose in reminding me how connected I am to what's going on outside as much as inside. What happens outside my body, my door, my town, my state, my country impacts me. We are intertwined, the earth and I. No, I'm not a pagan or neo-Druid, though I respect their choice, I have chosen to hear what's beneath the surface.

Nature keeps knocking, few want discover what she's telling us. Locked in personal battles to survive, many Americans justify ignoring environmental plight with: "I'll let the scientists worry about it." or "I don't have the time to care." On Twitter, the message is sent again and again that we're out of time, yet who is listening? Based on this week's mid-term elections, I'd conclude not many. No matter the candidate, if voters chose one who puts limitations on funding to protect the helpless, i.e. people and wildlife, then they elected to choose disintegration.

Desensitized men and women, especially those with power, refuse to see the consequences of their actions. Our economic infrastructure will regress, as the working and middle classes lose their stake in this country's future. And what will precipitate the negative impact will be the decline of our country's natural resources.

The dangerous suggestions already milling around Congress include selling off parcels of land in our national parks, drilling for fossil fuels off the East Coast (already in consideration before the elections, now more of a fait accompli) and ignoring warnings about climate change and mass species extinctions around the world, e.g. newts and salamanders are dying off by the millions in Europe due to a fungal, yes, another one, infection spread by an invasive relative from China.

I may have more time than the average American to contemplate these disastrous consequences; however, though I don't have the ability to engage in the world around me, physically, as I once did, I do have the wherewithal to keep connected. That connection includes listening. The signs are all around us, as close as our window panes. The future is in all of our hands. Subsequent generations will suffer if we don't act. Mother Earth is calling you. Do you hear her?

Passionate about the sea, nature, love, suspense? Read my sequel, DARK SEA, Shadowwater II. Go to www.shadowwater.net for details.