PHILOSOPHY | LIFE | TRAUMA

The Poetic Flow of Time

To end is to begin: life and the hydrological new year coincide

The heron in the pond. Photo by author. © Dawn Nelson.

Sometimes the rain falls quietly at night. In the morning, I collect the water from the gage and see the graceful silhouette of a blue heron standing in the pond below. The heron moves subtly with slow deliberation, a stealth evolved over millennia. For a moment that feels like prayer, I think about all the places where atmospheric rivers fall.

All the water raining down across the earth.

The Outer Sphere

Earlier this month, a climate organization I follow canceled a seminar on coastal resilience due to the impending hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. Canceling a seminar is insignificant amidst the devastation, yet I feel a tiny sorrow. It signals that we are too late. That we spend too much time deliberating whether, when, and how instead of just getting things done.

After many years of climate adaptation research and study, I realize it’s just another way of approaching the need to invest in life-affirming systems and infrastructure — and divesting from an economy based in war.

Unfortunately, humans are very preoccupied with war.