There's a Party Goin' On Right Here

The adults have left the house. 

Party!!!!!!!!

Without the needling, nagging, and interference of parents, nature’s class of 2020 has banded together for an international celebration.  Bust into the wine cellar and bring out the good stuff! 

None of us are invited.  In fact, nature is celebrating our absence.  We can watch, but we cannot play.

Apparently, nature loves a pandemic.  I thought it was a vacuum she abhorred, but it appears people top nature’s list of the loathsome.

Nature is getting a breather.  Her gassy stepsister has gone off to the penitentiary, and nature has her own room again.  She’s pulling the candy wrappers, pop cans, plastic shopping bags, dirty undies, and smelly gym socks from under the bed, and she’s putting up some posters and rearranging the space.  She will shower for as long as she likes, thank you!

This is not just on the street where I live.  It is happening all around the world.  The air and water are clearing.  The landscape is adorning itself. 

In my lifetime, the air has never felt fresher. The birds have never been happier or had more to sing about.
The grass has never been greener or more luxurious.  The spring blossoms have never been more beautiful.  The blooming trees have never been so full of buds, and the buds never so strong, hanging on for days through wind, rain and storm like a teenage girl clinging to her beau on prom night.  The daffodils have been lingering for weeks.  They can’t let go. They don’t want this night to end.

And lions and tigers and bears, oh, my!  They are returning to the roads in Africa and the parks in California.  Goats roam the streets of Wales where peacocks are spreading out more than their feathers. Wild boar wander the cobblestone streets of Barcelona, and sea life is returning to the Venice canals.  All over the world, city skylines are visible, and rainbows appear, connecting the landscape to heaven.  Perhaps this is what it was like for Noah when the rains finally stopped and he threw open a window.  Clear skies, clean earth, and that rainbow--the promise that the earth would never again be destroyed by water.

This shelter-in-place time has renewed not just my love for nature, but my need for her.  Home alone, the sun lifts my spirits.  The breeze caresses me.  The birds converse with me.  Beauty fills my eyes and keeps my heart from failing.  Nature comes through for me.

When this storm-tossed USS Pandemic finally comes into port from its wild ride, I hope our eyes are as wide open as Noah’s window.  Let there be a rainbow and a pledge that we will never again destroy the earth with anything our hands have made. 

That will be a reason to party.  Everyone is invited.

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