Nature could care less.

Today's weather was one of those rare days where temperature, humidity, light, and wind become a window into conditions found only in heaven. Two Blue Jay's engage in playful aerial acrobatics while I sip my morning joe of hazelnut coffee. A cardinal and his mate dine on the sunflower seeds I put out for them. Everything alive was out and about celebrating Spring time in their own unique way. I was but a witness.

 Unbeknowest to the woodland creatures that play in my world, the mighty river north of here was spilling its banks, breaking levies, flooding farmland, and destroying homes. A drought had withered and destroyed most of the crops in France. Another fire broke out in the ongoing nuclear disaster an ocean away, and somewhere in the world people were plotting to kill one another. Scientist release a report that shows the Cryosphere melting far faster than their worst predictions a year ago. Jobless claims soar like a giant industrial hiccup, and European finances give a shutter. Anxiety and worry everywhere....but here. It was as if the energy of life was immune to these disharmonics, and it carried on in its natural state of bliss. I was absorbed in it...a genuine rapture. The wisdom of things playing out around us each and every day has stood the test of time, it has seen animals of all sorts come and go, the mountains washed to the sea, and the new ones rise from them. Surely, the proclivities and moribund decay on display presently has been seen before. Surely, the dynamo of creation will weather it. I ponder this as I stare at a lizard pondering back at me.

It doesn't seem to care....in fact nothing around me seems to care. The breeze seems to laugh at my worry as it tickles my fancy to pull the canoe out and try that new bass lure. Ha, ha, ha, it chuckles blowing across my neck. Ah what the heck, life is too short and miraculous not to carpe deum heavens window. Everything is simplified on days like this. The canoe and gear loaded on the back of my small truck, a back window busted out of it, and a bill collector hounding me in payment - of which I told the caller that if they show me the road to economic recovery I'll show them a payment. The humor was missed by them in their cubicle world, and I merely shrugged off my worries thinking of the redwing blackbirds that would be dazzling me with their aerial show.

A small family was gathered at the boat launch with poles cast and a small toddler throwing marshmallows to a baby alligator a few feet away. The scene was charming and would make a great painting. They were very friendly and encouraging, "going out to where the fish are?" Why yes I was. Tackle bag, cooler with cold water, pole and new lure, paddle, knife, and cell phone. The Canadian made canoe slipped smoothly into the swampy waters as a loud bullfrog croaked and grunted. I was off into unknown coves filled with alligators and mysterious swamp monsters. My paddle dipped into the murky rich waters making my conveyance slice a path to the unexplored Eastern cove of "White's Kitchen" bayou. I tested my new fofangled bass lure along the banks as I drifted. The jitterbug, or so it was called, was shaped like a frog and designed to skim the waters surface. It's antics of flipping and flopping like a wounded toad would surely pull the delicious bass out from their hidey holes. I sent my cast here and there with a steady retrieve while watching all manner of swamp life croak, chirp, burp, crack, whistle, slap, bellow, purse, moan, gurgle, and what have you. So much life talking. What were they saying...I wondered. The red crested black bird was busy chasing the ducks as they quacked when my lure plunked into the water.

No fish reeled in after nearly an hour cruising the eastern banks. I continued taking the canoe into a twisted cove that looked forlornly like the den of a giant alligator. Surely, I would look to big and ugly to be messed with, but who would see me if something did happen? I laughed at the thought letting the idea drift off like a fairy tale. The sunlight was reflecting across the green expanse of hyacinths, pickerel weed, swamp milkweed, and spider lily's. Dragonflies, butterflies, damselflies, and love bugs flew about like wicked fairies. The muddy water was still and beckoning. It was time......

I cast the lure across my private gator den listening to it hit the water and paddle back on retrieve. After a while of this I became indifferent to whether or not anything would ever strike, but then, then it happened. Bam! The fish hit with vigor and I had my first fish of the day. The feeling of a catch strikes a primitive cord. The human animal triumphant once more!

Then another....

Once again, nature freely provided. 5 in all and I even had a chance to tease a three foot alligator gar as it chased the bait back to the canoe. Fish, turtles, and gators were all having their meals too. All the life around freely giving and taking. No money involved at all. No law. No rules. No leaders. Just the freedom that natures gives at birth. It is only humanity that makes up the rest in order to enslave.

You only have to look outside to see that nature doesn't care about our worries, our fears, our rules, and our effects. It only gives and takes....freely. Something so resilient, so lasting of hardship, so endowed with wisdom can surely endure us.

Nature could care less.