Love Your Neighbor

October 19, 2022

Love Your Neighbor

Last autumn, I saw this garter snake basking on my path in a brief moment of sunlight unfiltered by smoke. As soon as I neared, he slipped beyond the fence that borders the dirt footpath. I was going to write about this encounter, but got distracted with other things. Then, yesterday, I saw a smaller green and yellow ribbon winding away from my path.

For a long time now, when people tell me about animals they see in their neighborhood, I will say, “It is good to get to know your neighbors.” We, humans, have long tended to think of ourselves as very different from all other animals. Yes, we seem to the only species that can even change global climate patterns. But in the end we are interwoven and interconnected with all our neighbors.

When I think of turning climate change and the production of greenhouse gasses around, I think of my neighbors sliding through the undergrowth and think, “wherever they go, I also go.”

Permalink