Where Have The Birds Gone
When I was a child, I remember there were flocks of birds so great they darkened the sky and so loud they drowned out all other sound. All manner of creature great and small stalked the suburban. Leafy flora surrounded me, from the tiniest onions down in the dirt to the tallest flowers towering over me in the trees.
I miss the proliferation of life all around me, especially during the summer, when waterfowl busily ate up breadcrumbs by the pond during the day and fireflies positively teemed like a million little stars throughout the night. I don't miss the ants. Or the wasps. What I do miss is observing nature, from squirrels chasing each other to birds making their nests, and being a part of it as the seasons shifted. Jumping into fallen autumnal leaves, shaking snow from hibernal branches, collecting vernal blossoms.
There were cats, dogs, squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, skunks, groundhogs, deer -- I even remember seeing a red squirrel once and those seem to be all but extinct now, at least where I live. Some of these species still exist around me, but their numbers and frequency of being sighted seem greatly diminished compared to past decades. Meanwhile, most of the flora's died away, entire trees, shrubs, and flowers are gone from the semi-wooded land surrounding me. I miss the way things were, when the world was full of life and possibilities.
However, what if it's not the world that's changed, but me? Instead of a bevy of fauna and flora, I've surrounded myself with screens: television, tablet, phone, laptop, and desktop computer. Sometimes I think this modern life is an improvement -- there are no mosquitoes or damaging UV rays indoors -- but other times I'm wistful for what's been lost: a sense of being a part of something greater... the greater web of life that surrounds all living beings. Speaking of webs... I don't particularly miss the spiders, either.
Today, I woke up early and looked out my window to see a large flock of black birds swooping from ground to tree to ground again, moving as a unified whole. It was like a scene out of a dream... or of a time long past.
