The Earth, and All that is Upon It

I glance up into the garden from my laptop on the kitchen table to watch the silver birches, oaks and pines sway in the breeze. As I grow older and wiser, I am increasingly convinced that they are all conscious - conscious in the manner that trees are conscious. Without powers of observation (other than sensing the soil that holds their roots, or the sensation of movement in the wind), lacking powers of deduction, or ability to focus with intent - just (just!) the awareness of being Alive.

I glance across from the keyboard at a housefly that's examining the kitchen table. In years gone by, I'd have squashed it - slowly moving my hand behind its blind spot, then when I feel the moment for the kill is right - BAM! But not any more. Live and let live; it's not hurting me - it's calm, not buzzing - there's only one fly, not a swarm - so I just let it be. [Paul McCartney finds his way in the beginning and end of that sentence.] Walking around, unhurriedly, the fly disappears behind the laptop, I return to focusing on my work. The fly, just as the tree, is aware of its existence. What it makes of the white veneer surface of the table, what qualia impressions it subjectively experiences - is something I can only intuit.

Left: sentient, observant, alert - a study in attention and intention. Also viewed from the kitchen table, a kestrel surveys the land for signs of voles or field mice.

My garden, home to about a million plants if you include every blade of grass, every weed, surrounds me. It grows. I shall not take a lawn mower to it, nor spray weed-killer or pesticide on it. We symbiose. Neighbours down the road are forever mowing and taking chainsaws to their trees; OK, their gardens look neat, but I have a different aesthetic - more in keeping with the future. I am a steward of my acre; on my watch it shall live and breathe and photosynthesise. 

Yet grass should not be allowed to grow too high around the building - I use a scythe; physical effort is needed to keep the immediate lawn adjacent to the house reasonably trim. Ants, I see, are returning to the doorstep, where they were nesting two years ago - rather than kill them with boiling water, I discourage them with used coffee grounds from the cafetière.

And my solar panels have finally been plugged into the grid by the electricity company, four weeks and a day since they were installed (the electricity company legally has 30 days to do this - they did it on Day 29). It was sunny today from around 10am to 3:30pm, the app in my phone tells me that the panels have generated 18.6kWh, earning me 16.08 złotys so far today (it's 7pm as I write). This is way more than the electricity I'm currently using, but the idea is to balance out with the grid across the year, so I sell the surplus in summer which is then offset against winter usage, allowing me to keep the house warm and dry and mildew-free right through the cold dark months.

We must fight the temptation to endlessly consume in a cycle of waste. The Earth can sustain us all, indefinitely, but only if the affluent part of the global population stops burning through resources at the current rate. 

"Well maybe it's just the time of year

Or maybe it's the time of man

I don't know who I am

But you know life is for learning.

We are stardust

Billion year old carbon

We are golden

Caught in the devil's bargain

And we've got to get ourselves

back to the garden"

- Woodstock, Joni Mitchell (1969)

The devil's bargain? Mindless consumption. Greed and the disillusionment it brings.

Ah yes - the James Webb Space Telescope has started sending images from 13.1 billion light years away - the earliest images of galactic formation. Misfortune has been precluded - but let's not get complacent!

This time last year:
First steps in meditation
[More on this soon]

This time three years ago:
Poetry in the search for eternal truths

This time four years ago:
Koszyki

This time five years ago year:
It's just an Ilyushin (Warsaw's long-gone plane-restaurant)

This time six years ago:
Marathon stroll (31.5km) along the Vistula 

This time eight years ago:
Complaining about the lack of a river crossing between Siekierki and Góra Kalwaria! 

This time nine years ago:
S2 update (nearly ready)

This time ten years ago:
Progress on S2 bypass - photos from the air

This time 14 years ago:
Up Śnieżnica

This time 15 years ago:
July continues glum (2007 - a rainy summer)