A healed earth includes all of us.
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We’re seeing photos of clear skylines with views some have never seen before from their balcony.
We’re seeing busy waterways run clean as their surfaces sit still from lack of traffic, wildlife wander abandoned city streets and our favorite parks put on sundown shows for no one but the birds and bears.
It’s easy to come to a conclusion that our planet is healing in the midst of our absence, but polishing up that silver lining also highlights the lines we’ve drawn to delineate value.
You see, all of us are part of ecosystems – we each play an integral role.
And as folks on the margins are hurting, it’s important that we’re made deeply aware that their suffering is directly linked to the waning of the world we call ‘home’.
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Several years back, while managing community programming at a teen shelter, I began to read books on wolves.
I was interested in the lore that surrounded them, what led them to the brink of erasure from the land they belonged to, and how the world they belong to was affected by their absence.
I read about farmers and ranchers who deemed them a nuisance, and eradicated them from the space they laid claim to. Repopulating with cattle, sheep, and fowl.
And as they did, the land began to change – Riverbanks were shallowed from overgrazing of abundant deer populations, native grasses were mowed down before they could go to seed, waterways warmed and fish died off.
But then, there were people who loved the wolves, who deemed them of great worth. And they fought long and hard to reverse the damage done – to reintroduce these beings to their rightful place, the ecosystems they belonged to. And as they did, the land was restored. Rivers ran swifter and deeper and colder as populations of hoofed animals were moderated by growing packs. The Bison herds grew stronger and healthier, the fish returned, and the grasses grew back.
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One day, while teaching a gardening class, we were planting heirloom seeds and I was trying to explain the importance of biodiversity to the youth in attendance.
So, I told them about the wolves – the species deemed as unimportant, unvalued, and dangerous. I told them how wolves were pushed to the edges of their ecosystem, killed off, and starved – so that animals dubbed with greater value, were allowed to roam free.
I told them about how the wolves had been there before the people, how they were vital to the flourishing of the land they lived on, and how they were wildly misunderstood and marginalized by the majority.
And as I spoke, this one lovely kid - with his hood pulled up and his glowing eyes shining through the shadows of his sweatshirt – looked at me and said softly,
“Miss Noel - we are the wolves.”
And it’s true. Because I watched these kids walk into our drop-in centers, tired and hurt and hungry. I watched them get singled out and shook down – ignored and ostracized. I watched the very world they belong to, slowly push them aside – restricting resources and support.
And all the while, our figurative waters begin to warm, our metaphorical rivers slowed, and our symbolic herds begin to suffer.
“Diversity is important to all ecosystems,” I said, “You are a vital participant in a communal act of restoration,” I told him.
He smiled, and we continued to plant all the odd seeds.
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Illness isn’t a great equalizer – it runs the route of the systems we’ve put in place, ones we’ve established based on otherness.
Otherness that has spurred us on to build strong walls and sequester folks in isolation - be it due to background or race or orientation or ability. We’ve spent ages cinching the margins, minimizing visibility. Pushing the “others” to the edge, deeming them of lesser value, unworthy, and unimportant.
Covid-19 is disproportionately affecting poor, elderly, under-resourced and BIPOC communities. People with limited access to medical care, clean water, shelter and healthy food are suffering.
These beings are vital to our existence and there is no healing while they’re hurting.
This injustice is wild evidence of an imbalanced ecosystem.
Even in the midst of clearer horizons, our earth is hurting.
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When I experience nature, I’m called into communion with beings of all shapes and sizes. Ancient and young organisms. Diversity of every type.
All important. All valuable. All integral in this place we call ‘home’.
So, in the midst of a pandemic - ask questions and lead with kindness.
Challenge deep-rooted narrative and question wildly embraced truths.
Observe the ecosystem around you, embrace all that teems within it, and ask yourself what is missing,
Then advocate for systems to support.
Fight for sustainability as an act of social justice.
Fight for conservation as an act of compassion.
We are integral in our ecosystems.
And a healed earth includes all of us.