The Snow Is Gone

The snow pile in front of Recycled & New Bicycles melted this week. It all officially disappeared on March 24. That means I win the "Guess The Day The Snow Pile Melts" game. My guess was March 23. Justin guessed April 4, and Anonymous guessed March 31. It's not fair, really. I've always been a careful observer of nature. Like Thoreau and Leopold, I've been known to record the dates when certain plants bloom and leaf out, and when the sand hill cranes depart and return (in case you have never noticed, the sand hill crane is my animal spirit guide).

It's in our genes, if we just listen hard enough. Humans evolved as a hyper-vigilant species. As our earliest ancestors walked the African savannas looking for their next meal, they were also looking over their shoulders for lions and other predators, looking for their next meal. Early humans knew where to find food, water, and shelter in each season. They knew when each fruit ripened and when each water hole dried up. They knew which plants were good to eat and which had medicinal properties. They knew when the rains would begin and end. They knew the phase of the moon, and what it meant when the wind blew hard out of the southwest. The actions of other animals in their world had direct meaning (see animal spirit guide above). In short, they were directly connected to the natural world, and hyper-vigilant about their surroundings.

What does it all mean for us? Well, we are still hyper-vigilant. We love stimulation. Again, it's genetic. Responding to changes in our environment (stimuli) allowed us to survive and our brains to grow. The problem is that we have replaced the natural world with artificial stimuli: the automobile, TV, Hollywood, fast food, Dancing With The Stars, drugs, consumer goods, sex, and computers.

So, get outside. Ride you bike or go for a hike. The direction of the wind, the sound of running water, the phase of the moon, that bird singing in the tree, the purple flower, the sound of the wind in the trees, they all have an something very important to tell you. There is more stimuli out there than one could ever process. Global warming is not something you read about. It's something you see, hear, and feel. When I first began recording the departure of sand hill cranes from north Florida in the early 1980's it was always the first week of March (right around my birthday). Today, 25 years later, they consistently leave two to three weeks earlier, in mid to late February.

Enough. I'm hungry and I do not know where my next meal is coming from. Good thing I know the location of both Burger Kings.