It's my birthday and it recently struck me as odd that we celebrate our birthdays in a rather selfish way. Why do I get the cards, friendly messages and yes, still some presents? Why isn't my Mum getting all this attention as the person who worked hardest this day all those years ago? Thanks Mum.
We do often make the mistake of ignoring the person, things or actions that gave birth to the events we celebrate. The greatest unsung heroes of the world are in fact the bugs and slimes that are the basis for pretty much all life on earth. In fact, we fear or loathe those bugs. How many of us smile and cheer when we accidentally walk face-first through a web beautifully engineered in a doorway by one of the many spiders now very visble in gardens and parks? I'm guessing many a conversation centred on Friday's drastic change in the weather from sun-bleached 30 degree toastie-ness to cooler, wetter conditions. But I bet lawns and plants sighed with relief, while trees untangled their stressed twigs, shook out their leafy hair and roared with joy at the sky.
Nature is all about change and interconnectedness. You can't remove one element without impacting on others. Yet, some still see the natural world as some sort of global pick-up sticks game, yanking out badgers here, channelling rivers there, or even changing the rules and introducing a complex system of increasing their piles of sticks by nicking some from another set; calling it off-setting.
As it's my birthday, I'm going to list some presents but these are the sort we can all share: