Meeting ‘God’ was up-close and personal but not enlightening – Day 10

Earlier this week I had an accidental overdose of medically prescribed THC/CBD oil. I didn’t know that an overdose was even possible but the quantity that I consumed probably increased the likelihood. In a vile containing 30ml (net volume) comprised of 16.34 mg/ml of CBD and 9.99 mg/ml of THC I estimate that I took almost 20 ml in one gulp when I mistook the full bottle as empty and tried to drain the last few drops.

I knew what to something of what to expect after experiencing the DMT of Ayahuasca but was totally unprepared for a THC overdose and the collateral damage it might inflict.

It started as a typical night for my wife and I. We were grateful to have recently survived another storm without any damage but we were still tired from a restless sleep. This particular mid-December evening the fireplace glow, our Christmas decorations and Holiday lights brightened the long winter night. Our pets were stretched out on their beds or their favourite places. Christmas gifts were promisingly placed under a triangular metal ‘tree’, with red ribbon edging and 21 hand-painted Holiday bulbs, near the fireplace. The serene and peaceful ambience was an antidote to our long, cold and dark nights of winter.

Such weather is great for cozy evenings. By 7pm it had been dark for 2 hours and dinner dishes were already cleared and cleared. We sat in our side-by-side easy chairs enjoying a TV episode of the streaming series ‘Sneaky Pete’. My wife soon nudged her feet over my armrest in the pursuit of her nightly feet massage. On this night, however, I was not in the mood. I was preoccupied. Since swallowing the THC I had been trying to gauge the impact my overdose would have on our tranquil evening and my wife’s fragile support for my hallucinogenic transcendent journey.

I didn’t need to wait long and as the THC chemicals quickly make their way through my bloodstream, into my brain and then the rest of my body, it became increasing clear that the impact would be equivalent to a terrorist bomb exploding when least expected and where it could do the most damage. It was a well-known jihadist fear tactic that amplified the impact of their acts. I now feared that my overdose would go beyond myself. I knew what to expect after experiencing the DMT from Ayahuasca but was totally unprepared for a THC overdose and the collateral damage it might inflict.

To her, It must have felt like I was inhabited by ‘God’ in the same way someone, who was a candidate for an exorcism, was ‘inhabited’ by the ‘Devil’.

I tried to focus on ‘Sneaky Pete’ to distract myself and to focus my overdose experience. I imagined that this was the equivalent to someone heroically throwing themselves on a hand grenade or bomb for the greater good. It wasn’t long, however, before I began to verbally dissect each scene. It was not unusual for me to analyze TV shows but seldom would I do so verbally or spontaneously. I knew that I was in trouble when I declared ‘Sneaky Pete’ to be the best program by the Breaking Bad creative team since that series had its last hurrah. It was her askance look that revealed the truth.

I had initially resisted the urge to disrupt our evening as I’ve had always kept my ‘transcendent journey’ struggles largely to myself. My wife of 18 years had made it clear that she didn’t want me to travel, let alone take such unnecessary risks. I also wanted our cocoon lifestyle, surrounded by nature and nurture, but I was also driven by a need to prepare for the inevitable loneliness and despair of dying. I scrambled to repackage my situation in order to salvage the moment when, shortly after singing the praises of Bryan Cranston, I felt like I was abducted by an undeniable, yet seemingly alien, force that held me captive. Think Spielberg’s film ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’.In other words, I realized that this was not going to be another routine night.

At one point I imagined my body rhythmically moving to a pulsating drum beat. It felt like I was a Native warrior on the Plains that my people once called home. I was alone but somehow also connected to a spirit. I danced an ancient tribal dance with abandon as I felt a deep ancestral connection to the land and the Creator. I was not thinking so much as staying in the moment of this blissful celebration of movement. The reality to my wife, however, was that I was uncoordinated, almost convulsive.

My wife told me afterwards that she saw that I was drained of colour, unable to walk or talk coherently and near death. To her, It must have felt like I was inhabited by ‘God’ in the same way someone, who was a candidate for an exorcism, was ‘inhabited’ by the ‘Devil’. To me, I felt that I was a free spirit who emerged in a Native spirit dance and, despite my wife’s fears, I would have happily died in that joyful moment.

Perhaps ‘God’s’ edginess shows a bit more at this time of year? I mean, I know that I would be irritated.

Later I took on the ‘persona’ of ‘God’, or, at least, my idea of what ‘God’ would say and do. At times I was in communication without words and at times I verbalized ‘God’s’ thoughts. My internal ‘conversations’ were all one-side. It felt like ‘God’ was speaking either through me or to me. I had no control over what I did and was continually surprised by what I said or thought.

When my wife asked ‘God’ if he/she was real I sensed that ‘God’ became irritated. When ‘God’ responded, he/she lowered his/her voice to almost a whisper and started to speak through me. ‘God’ explained, through my voice and persona, that my wife was going to die. I saw my wife’s non-reaction and thought we are all going to die, although I sensed that this was more of a news headline then an obvious fact. My wife, however, might just need time to process what is happening in our living room on this once cozy evening.

At one point I got stuck in a repeating loop as I was being lowered onto what I thought was a comfortable couch. My smugness was eliminated when a mirror revealed that I was being lowered into a coffin. It wasn’t clear to me if this was imminent or the nature of a human life cycle but, in the moment, it felt like I was on a de-assembly line in that it was ‘one size fits all’ impersonal. It was clear, however, that getting affairs in order and stop wasting precious time was important for both my wife and I and probably for everyone. It was a harsh reality we would all face but this seemed to me to be more immediate somehow.

He/she next told my wife that her existence and the existence of humanity was a mere distraction, like a toy for a child. ‘God’ added that my wife lives in a tiny world but that the cosmos had an infinite number of multi-dimensional universes, which, as I observed in ‘real’ time, were laid out in a linear manner such that he/she, as well as I, could see at a glance. I felt her recoil as if to take a sober measure of everything. I had just experienced ‘God’ as all-knowing, all-powerful ‘Father figure’ who had a bit of an edge that felt very human to me.

Yet part of me also was reminded of my struggle to understand why, if Jesus was angry with merchants in a temple why he/she is not also angry with the celebration that commemorates his birth has been ‘converted’ into a pagan indulgence of consumerism. Perhaps ‘God’s’ edginess shows a bit more at this time of year? I mean, I know that I would be irritated.

In other words, my take on ‘God’ while under the influence is a projection of my own fears and insecurities that will likely underline my late stage of life.

It is difficult for me to give my take on ‘God’ by simply using quotation marks or stating he/she felt human without also providing my religious background and thoughts on religion and spirituality. So, hopefully, you will read the rest of this entry as I attempt to switch gears.

I believe that Spirituality is a birthright of each person, no matter which ‘God’ you worship and regardless of whether you are a believer or not. I also believe that many Religions are corrupted by man in their quest for worldly dominance, power and wealth and are generally not concerned with you and your betterment through self-actualization or spiritual cosmic awakening. In fact, they are not concerned with the millions of homeless and starving or those that they torture, abuse and subjugate.

Spirituality, for me, is based upon my profound gratitude for the interrelatedness of all life and a belief that there is a cosmic Father and Mother for all of us. These beliefs were heightened during my Ayahuasca experience but not in my overdose experience. In both cases, however, my experiences were partly defined by my fear of dying and my journey to mitigate the inevitable loneliness and despair of dying. In other words, my take on ‘God’ while under the influence is a projection of my own fears and insecurities that will likely underline my late stage of life.

Islam is gaining more territory and Muslim adherents as well as more power and prominence through the unifying power of a Jihad. Secularism is also on the rise as more people choose secularism or to sit on the sidelines of religious wars.

I am not religious but I was ‘raised’ as a Catholic. My parents always pushed me out the door for Sunday mass but never attended themselves. I often spent the hour walking around or checking out used car lots. My childhood was marred by the years that I spent in a grade school run by Catholic Nuns and a year in High School run by the Christian Brothers, the same Brothers who molested the young orphan boys in their care at the Mount Cashel Orphanage that they also ran. My adult life has been secular. This stage of my adult life, however, has been defined by my spiritual journey that began on the Ayahuasca part of my transcendent journey.

I have also found it revealing that so many different religions believe that they are the one true religion and are driven to convert the entire world into their Faith even if it means employing the decidedly non-religious means of mutilation, torture, killing, the suppression of women and the rape of young boys under the sole protection of supposedly non-sexual men. What is wrong with this picture?

It is a sacrilege against all that is Holy yet we continue to follow because we want to believe that Religion gives our lives meaning or that there is a better life after death or that our sins will be forgiven. The promise of an afterlife is one of the keys for religions that prey on our weaknesses. We are followers that want to believe but those that offer salvation ignore the millions starving, without homes or rights, and being treated inhumanly.

The World is under attack on many fronts today. In the West we don’t see the impact as much but we know that our planet is dying from pollution and poisons as well as increasing demands on our ecosystem from an unsustainable population and the devastations to crops and irritable land and sustainable life caused draughts, fires and floods.

The roots of the Roman Catholic Church were a pagan cult but they rose to become arguably the wealthiest tax-free corporation in history. Now Christianity is on the decline. Judaism is under attack. Islam is on the rise. Islam is gaining more territory and Muslim adherents as well as more power and prominence through the unifying power of a Jihad. Secularism is also on the rise as more people choose secularism or to sit on the sidelines of religious wars.

Trump’s mercurial rise to the most powerful position in the world, for instance, happened because he is who he is and we are who we are.

I have long been drawn to the era after the death of Jesus that marks the rise of the Roman Catholic Church and the decline of the Roman Empire. It must have been a difficult time to distinguish yourself from the next soothsayer or healer or your beliefs when there were so many pagan Religions during the rise of the Roman Empire, which allowed different pagan cults to flourish in order to control the masses within their expansive territory.

The rise of the Roman Catholic Church during this time has a lot to do with a son trying to capture his fallen Father’s role as Western Roman Emperor only to discover your military force, when faced with a powerful foe and the the likelihood of their death, fails to enthusiastically engage the enemy.

The key to his victory and reign as Emperor was tied to Christianity after his hesitant soldiers were enticed to engage the enemy when their shields were painting with a Christian symbol and the hoped-for enthusiasm not only materialized but proved victorious. Constantine’s men fought with the renewed vigour of a higher purpose.

He became the Western Roman Emperor and within a year of his reign legalized Christianity. One year after his armies defeated the Eastern Roman Emperor he became the sole Emperor. Constantine, once again, ‘blessed’ the Roman Catholic Church when he proclaimed that Jesus to be a divine entity.

The Roman Empire not only gave the Roman Catholic Church its reigns of power but also showed the world a blueprint to power. In today’s era, imagine an alliance between Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Vladimir Putin or any hugely popular voice of the people aligning with the power of a popular religion or other entity.

We are followers by nature and not well suited to change our circumstances, such as climate change and treating immigrants inhumanely, as we do not see beyond our tribe and our own immediate needs. Trump’s mercurial rise to the most powerful position in the world, for instance, happened because he is who he is and we are who we are.

We all face homelessness – Day 9

Everyday the ‘paper cuts’ of invisibility diminish each and everyone of us.

The other day I went into a Hospital to get an x-ray and observed that most people seeking non-emergency help were seniors. I wasn’t surprised but I did become self-conscious about by own trajectory and the fact that I am slowly entering this demographic. It struck me that everyone I saw had life experience and a lifetime of untapped wisdom that would soon be extinguished. Their lives, our lives are viewed by society much like the way one-way projectiles are seen by the military.

I’ve seen this before but I’ve always been able to distance myself from this inevitability by taking comfort in my mobility and my vigor. This day I did the same as I always do but I knew that I was lying to myself. I knew not only that this was my future but that the future had arrived. For the first time I felt older than I felt last year.

Feeling older, vulnerable and invisible is sometimes a part of our lives but for every disenfranchised person it is a fact of life.

Later I drove through the lazy streets of my mid-sized town. I came across a run-down section of town that I seldom visit. It was where a new convention centre was spurring a revitalization. Now hotels and businesses were rising from ashes of abandoned buildings. Cheap land and the promise of a ‘golden’ business opportunities spurred greed and growth.

A familiar refrain that had not been sung in this part of town for what seemed like generations. Juxtaposed in this urban gold rush were the homeless.

The invisible homeless who we all see everyday. The displaced and disenfranchised homeless. Invisible because we are hardened to their plight and their ever increasing numbers. I wondered how this revitalization would affect their shelters and food depots.

The question was personal to me. My own struggle with mortality was intertwined somehow. My youth was commercialized as my earning power increased. Now as my earning power has decreased and my age has increased I am becoming a member of the invisible class. My fellow classmates were easy to find throughout our society.

Seniors and the homeless share invisibility with all Americans who are not white, male, powerful or privileged. But even those who are white, male, powerful and privileged are also diminished by their self-imposed isolation and false security.

As I observed the men and women who made this neighbourhood their home turf, I was reminded how I was one with these fellow travellers. Despite first appearances and the sanctuary of my life I was not inured to their pain and suffering. I knew that I, too, have the ‘sword of Damocles’ hanging over my life about to cut me down to size. I knew that it is easy to become invisible through retirement and aging.

My affinity with the homeless has since grown. I like the honesty of their lives. There is no frills, no pretence. Their basic physical needs for food, water, air, safety, shelter, warmth, health, and sex was largely satisfied by well intended organizations such as the Red Cross. But I heard despair in their voices and saw anguish in their faces and wondered if there was some way to inject meaning and purpose into their lives. I don’t mean work or social programs but rather something that removes their invisibility and that makes them proud.

Why do we continue to act like ostriches with our buried heads ignoring the inevitable decisions and actions of our brief time on earth?

On a return visit to the area I visited a homeless shelter and was left my particulars for the person in charge. I don’t know exactly what I’ll say but I do know what I want to convey. I want him or her to briefly imagine a coalition of homeless people standing up against climate change. Maybe even standing along side the children who have already found their voices. Maybe it will cause the more complacent among us to say something like if the homeless can do this than what is stopping us/me from also taking a stand.

I know that this daydreaming is ‘pie in the sky’ stuff. I also know that we are in a rut. I realize that inaction is our default position. But we do know better. We know that plants and animals are increasingly becoming extinct and that our reliance on a healthy, biodiverse environment is increasingly becoming more and more precarious. This is no longer an argument that pits our lifestyle against science and facts. It is a reality that everyone of us will face in our lifetime.

The Climate Change deniers are no different than those promoting the misinformation that smoking and alcohol are good for you and your image.

The longer we deny this reality, the greater the urgency to stand united against climate change and demand change. Until now, we all been mostly silenced by the ‘we need fossil fuels for jobs and the economy’ mantras of big business. Yet we all know that big business or the industrial/military complex has always served their own interests and that of the insulated elite.

We are so often led by self interests into becoming disposable like the defenceless soldiers of Gallipoli or the homeless on your streets. Why would we ignore the signs or the reality when to do so only increases the uninhabitability of our community, our country and our ecosystem. Greed and growth at any cost would be my guess.

Everyone is either a climate warrior or asleep at the wheel – Day 8

Greta Thunberg, then 15, holds a placard reading ’School strike for the climate’ during a protest against climate change outside the Swedish parliament last November. The link gives some background on her efforts including her recent visit to the US Congress. https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/20/us/greta-thunberg-profile-weir/index.html

Greta Thunberg is an unlikely climate warrier. Barely a teenager, she is shy and unassuming. Nonetheless, she now has become a symbol to the rest of us of what one person can do to make a difference. Yet that difference is also unlikely unless we decide to also become climate warriors. Why has it come to this desperate a situation that our children are acting more like an adult than us adults?

We live in a time not entirely dissimilar to when tribalism first harnesed the separation between us and them. When life gender roles and expectations were embedded in our children. Both a a tribe and a modern tribe need to reply upon alliances and predictable crop yields to survive and thrive. Our modern technology has evolved but human have not. We are the same basic animal that is still motivated by primal fears and irrational thoughts.

Our species, in the past, has formed a world wide alliance when threatened by unabated devastation the Smallpox, one of the world’s most feared diseases until it was eradicated by a collaborative global vaccination programme. Yet the idea of such a collaboration today is challenged by climate deniers and the religious who dismiss science as much as others dismiss the mythology surrounding religion.

Today, in our deeply divided world, the need to unify as a species is once again dire. Our leaders do not lead, our masses do unify to demand change and our gods stand idle as the world gasps. It is easy to do nothing yet we know that we are able, as a species, to take collective actions in order to overcome common threats to our species. So why don’t we take action?

Some would say that it is all a hoax or that science is misguided but others might say we have fallen asleep at the wheel and the time for action has been squandered.

What is clear is that we are plagued by inaction at a critical point in the survival of our species. At this crossroad in our species history being asleep ‘at the wheel’ will not only impact human and other organisms but also what was once our life-sustaining garden. Inaction will continue exasperate a desperate situation. The greed and indifference of our species has unleashed destabilized forces and like a mythical genie, cannot be put back into the proverbial bottle.

Longer lasting and more intense storms and floods will ruin crops and shift populations but also devastate coastal, low-lying regions. Drought will also ruin crops and shift populations and create ideal conditions for wild fires. The spread of invasive species and disease will challenge existing health systems and further impact biodiversity.

Even our food will be impacted. Ocean acidification and pollution is impacting sea life and our dependence on the ocean as a food source. Our once rich animal and plant diversity has already been severely impacted by the demands of an unsustainable population. As pollution and land shortages will continue to impact the type of nature of our food as we change our food sources and modify our food to accommodate more people and less fertile land.

We can all be warriors if and when we are awakened by the futility and meaninglessness of life.

We will not be the first to wonder, nor likely the last, if this life is all that there is. Our obsessions and distractions have defined many of our lives. ‘Bread and Circuses’ is a well known phenomena used to control the masses. There are many more that indoctrinate and sedate us from childhood to adulthood.

The surprising part is not that we are followers but that we are willing to follow the pied piper of the hour off the cliff simply because he/she sings a predictably compelling but, ultimately self-serving tune. We never awaken from its spell nor do we seek other paths in life. We are, after all is said and plunged, strictly followers.

We have the ability to use technology and science to create a brave new world. But technology is not our saviour. It is not even our friend. Every new invention can and likely will be weaponized against others or us. A few control the masses and likely will always control the masses as long as we willingly stay divided and marginalized.

Is this all there is to life?

We will not be the first to wonder, nor the last, if this life is all that there is. We have the ability to use technology and science to create a brave new world but many fear such a world will suffer from the same human flaws that have unleashed the destructive forces of today. Does planetary travel really make sense when we cannot live in balance on Earth?

As social animals there is meaning for some in creating offsprings. Others find meaning through a more solitary life. Whatever works often works best if there are social rewards since we all have social drives and values. Yet as individuals we can also feel the meaning of life reduced to breeding and work in which even a full social life lacks individual fulfillment and actualization. This is likely why the question of whether this is all there is will serve as a wake up call for many.

If you step outside of our social norms or are socially marginalized through social disconnects such as divorce and retirement or if you travel authentically or experiencing, truly experiencing a higher spiritual power or some life-altering event.

For me it was becoming a participant in a mind-altering psychedelic experience. I saw my life in a different context, one that is defined by being faithful to my true-self. The self that was buried by my self-imposed ego.

I now wonder if the world can be united if we all realizing our true-selves or, at least, placing our ego gratification in lower esteem

My ego was so dominate that only my recent psychedelic experience has fully released my dormant wakefulness. It has led me to now believe that the meaning of our lives is to become true to our true-selves, not just a sleep-walking participants.

My ego gratification is less of a compulsion and I am actively de-cluttering my world of stuff. It will not only reduce my carbon footprint but also allow me more time to travel inward.

The pull of Western industrial society consumerism is often undeniable but reframing my values has made be a much better consumer. In fact, I am now leaning strongly towards the environmental virtues of Veganism as playing a more active role as a guardian of the land and life in my purview.

Unike Greta, I’m too old, too cynical to be the soap-box kind.

I’m part of the problem. Jaded by a life of failed efforts to change the course of today’s madness, I’ve decided to sit on the sidelines. I know that I will not experience the worst and have chosen my battles wisely. Yet I can’t stay silent knowing my children and grand children will inherit this mess. If others can then that is on them.

I know that my efforts won’t make a global difference. I know that a blog with 11 followers won’t change the course of our fate today. I know that an article by CNN will be dismissed by many readers who have already decided climate change is a hoax. It is a sad truth but my life experiences have extinguished the hope I once held in my heart for a better world.

I have seen the power of wealth and power. Special interests, Corporate interests, Military interests, Religious interests all hold sway within our democracies, much like they do in totalitarian states. I have even been disappointed by the reluctance of big oil to embrace a green strategy for the inevitable.

I truly hope that Greta inspires change.

I view the lacklustre response to Greta by the US congress as yet another example of passion speaking to arrogant self-interests of Politicians who are only too aware of the next election and their limited shelf-life. I wish her well. I wish all of us well. Mostly I wish other animal organisms well as they are the innocents, they are the true victims. For we, with our silence and compliance, are all to blame for today’s mess.

I truly hope our world takes action, not just today but forever. We desperately need a sea change in our values and our destructive, myopic ways. We need visionary leadership capable of profound actions today, even if it comes from our children.

It is after all, our children who will inherit our mess and an out-of-control world. It is our children whose future has been stolen by our actions and inactions. We should be deeply ashamed but there is no time left for acrimony or partisan politics. Now is the time to make profound changes in our way forward as a species. We need to express our love for each other as the brothers and sisters we are and to embrace our true-selves as the highest form of meaning in each of our lives.

A Winter Lull-a-bye

For some people it means snow shovelling and hazardous driving. Others see it as a time for skating, skiing and snowmobiling. It is something that I enjoyed as a kid and now, as an adult, I am rediscovering the joy it offers.

I still remember the delight of catching the first flakes of the season on my outstretched tongue. I still remember school-closed days and the imaginative thrills of building tunnels and forts. I still remember the jubilation of sledding with my children. Now I value the sanctity and inner-peace as well as the change in the balance between people, animals and nature.

For now, at least in my quiet country lifestyle, the deep-freeze of winter holds all of us in its vice grip.

In my backyard, even the water surface transforms into a frozen extension of the adjacent land and separation between the two becomes almost indistinguishable. The separation that does exist, however, is between man and animals for in this white on white landscape there are, temporarily, few people and an abundance of animals.

It strikes me as an awakening of animal life but perhaps my sightings are just more obvious to me against a white canvas. Nonetheless, this is nature and the somewhat featureless landscape serves the predator’s keen sense of sight and smell. This advantage coupled with the scarcity of food in winter means that many animals will be eaten because they are more vulnerable in winter. Yet even their death will allow other animals to survive another day. For the cycle of life and death isn’t interrupted by wonders of nature or when animals sit precariously on the knife-edge between the need to survive and the need to kill in order to survive.

It is a reminder of the preciousness of life, primarily because it makes obvious that inescapable death awaits us all.

I don’t want to be morbid but I do want to be realistic. For me, death is natural and I am attempted to reframe my dualistic religious conditioning, in part from my psychedelic journey, and to accept death openly as part of a cycle that connects all of us to the universe, including all life forms, and to the spirituality that I once experienced as a kid feeling snow melt on my extended tongue and tasting joy and wonder for the first time.

Wild animals are unlikely to consider their demise in such a favourable fashion, however, as, for them, death is ever-present and this burden requires every day, every task, especially in Winter, to be about their survival. Winter is a test of energy management and, when food sources and stored fat recedes starvation looms. When this becomes a matter of life or death it will lead to desperation and the likelihood of animals leaving the comfort of their homes and risk encountering man in order to survive.

This may seem harsh but animals don’t have the same choices that we enjoy.

During daylight I have seen deers, coyotes and foxes put themselves in harm’s way in their search to secure the necessities of shelter and food. Fortunate for them I am not a hunter, despite having hunted. I know that their chance of survival is just a matter of luck as it is unlikely they will survive as the weak seldom do.

They have no central heat, layered clothing or corner store. Nor do they have access to regular medical care, let alone emergency treatment. For many animals there is no safe place except parks or nature reserves as hunters will not always respect hunting seasons or bag limits. Something we all know but ignore due the enforcement costs. We also may choose to ignore the plight of wild animals forced to survive such circumstances with the meagre subsistence imposed by winter, a starvation prone diet that our throw-away, order food-at-home culture feels immune from.

Such indifference stems from the cruelty we have long-since accepted with our animal-based consumer choices, choices that we no longer consider whenever we have a hamburger or purchase a pair of leather shoes. We look at the price and don’t look and the benefits or the costs to other people or other life forms. Man may be the apex animal but I judge others by how they treat those who have no voice to protest or defend themselves.

Instead of being an apex animal I see man often operating more like a bottom-feeder.

I find it incredibly sad to witness a doe with one or two offspring cautiously navigating open spaces only to dash head long into the tick of the forest not knowing if their desperation will lead them to more people, more enemies or even that there are fewer and fewer natural places where she will find safety for her and her children.

Yet, despite the challenges and with proper wildlife management some survive. I don’t like wildlife management but I do like hunter management. I prefer that there is no hunters and wildlife are free to have a full and healthy life without the threat of head-on collision with man. I also believe that their survival has less to do with management than the wondrous ways in which they survive our cruelty.

Some animals adapt like the seasonally-adjustable snowshoe hare which turns white in winter so they can be less visible in a snowy environment. Others, like the Canada Goose or the Great Blue Heron, travel south for the winter. But the most wondrous feat, in my estimation, is reserved for animals, like the groundhog, the arctic squirrel and fresh water fish that hibernate.

For during hibernation, an animal can lower its temperature. In fact, one mammal has had their core temperature recorded at an incredibly low minus 2.9 degree Celsius. But of possible interest to pharmaceutical industry is that their heart rate can be significantly reduced. The fact that breathing can be reduced, in some cases reduced from fifty percent up to one hundred percent is of interest to scientists dreaming of man visiting distant galaxies on voyages that could take months or years.

A personal pleasure for me are the flocks of arctic bunting birds that Winter brings us.

They summer in the Arctic but travel south for the winter. There are an extremely cautious bird but, fortunately, for us are on full display from our living room. I call them ‘popcorns’ from their constant popping up into the air, sometimes for only a foot or two at a time. My wife has observed a seemingly playful behaviour where the birds use their wings to ‘splash’ snow around like a child might do in a bath. Hence, she has termed such behavior ‘snow baths’.

During a fierce wind the buntings effortlessly borrow beneath the fury of the howling winds that mold and shape the wintry landscape here like they might a desert there, sculpting each flake or grain into a conforming coherence. Soon they are all but invisible and the landscape again becomes an inhospitable surface.

In contrast to wild animals, man’s operating principle is often ‘something out of sight is something out of mind’. When the ocean’s bays and inlets become encased and their ceaseless waves and currents are no longer apparent than such beauty is transformed in the same manner that natural beauty is always transformed, by man. In this case by using fishing shacks to pursue their ‘sport’.

For me, this makes the distinction between animals and man shift ever more in favour of animals.

There are those that will drive on this secure surface and some who abandon their vehicles in order to use the glory of springtime to release them to the bottom of a deep ocean. There are others who use a fishing shack to dump unwanted garbage down the hole they use to fish.

Such mindlessness makes these acts and many other such acts, both here and everywhere else, an offence against nature and all life forms, including fellow man. It is an action that can no longer disguised by ignorance or acceptable because others also do the same. It is far too late for us to act against our better knowledge as the connection between polluting our environment and the quality of our water, air and food and our very survival is beyond question.

It is also beyond question that animals and all life forms are under assault and that their existence as a species may be now threatened with extinction from our ever expanding population and increasing footprint. Experts now agree that between 1,000 and 10,000 species a year become extinct because of man. Knowing what we now know how can we accept this loss in our planet’s biodiversity without acknowledging our own species is the scourge of the Earth.

Wildlife can adapt to the harshness of winter but it cannot adapt to the extremes of climate change man has created from his/her short-sightedness and greed. In this part of the world we have seen the collapse of the cod fishery where once fish were so plentiful that they were caught in open baskets lowered into the water. Now, after a couple hundred years of cod stock pillaging by in-shore and off-shore industries the cod industry is taking its first baby steps towards a tightly regulated recovery after years of no-fishing.

We have also flattened forests to create farmland in this area. Canada’s smallest province is largely cleared farmland. In the head-long rush to grow potatoes and manufacture and potato chips there is very little ‘original forest stands’ or even forested areas in existence any longer. The natural habitat is, in effect, destroyed.

Now, in addition to the lack of a home for wild animals and plants, soil erosion is a concern on this wind-swept Atlantic Island. The cause is unsuprisingly the lack of trees. Although it is more politically correct to say that it is caused by increased erosion from heavy rains, frequent tillage and a declining number of livestock operations.

More startling is the fact that we have failed to protect our wetlands and the rich bio-diversity that they embrace. The demands of industries and home owners coupled with the attraction of tax revenue has often resulted in government regulators being uneven when it comes to protecting the wetlands. Such habitats destruction is short-sighted but not unexpected in a world that chooses to ignore climate change.

I understand that our world can no longer sustain our population so change is inevitable. I don’t accept, however, the abuse and destruction of our diverse safety net of animal and plant life. We are like the complacent frog that dies slowly in water that is gradually heated until it boils. At what point to we awaken to our own danger of survival?

The frog doesn’t get his understand his dilemma until it is too late. What does the fact that scientists are seeking a hibernation breakthrough in order to provide us with the possibility of an escape, a new start on some distant galaxy suggest? Is it that are also too complacent to act in our own self-interest, let alone on behalf of the animals and plants that have no voice. That’s my vote.