When the BP oil spill first occurred, I think a big part of me went into hiding. I felt overwhelmed by the overwhelmingness of it all. So many things didn’t make sense to me such as why were we drilling so far down into the ocean floor if we didn’t have a really good disaster plan in place to take care of something just like what has happened. As a scuba diver, I already know what oil of that magnitude does to all kinds of animal, fish and plant life. Then there are our sisters and brothers who live all up and down the coast that has just barely begun recovering from the hurricane disasters.

There needs to be a whole lot of praying going on; however you do your kind of praying. Get it going on…

Anyway, I started this blog out by admitting that when I get really, really scared and feel absolutely out of control about something like the magnitude of this oil spill then what I tend to do is run away, bury my head and hide. I know, it’s not pretty but it’s the truth. And I think I see some other faces down here in the sand along with mine. Thank God there are people who do jump in and help, like the people all the way from New Zealand with the giant skimmers and Russia wants us to nuke the oil spout shut and all the people down on the beaches rescuing birds and turtles and dolphins. Wow. Thank them. So what can you and I do? What is one thing we can do. Just one little thing.

I was thinking of how I could be part of the solution instead of the problem tonight as I was leaving a meeting and I saw a Night Hawk circling through the parking lot lights, scrimming up bugs and making it’s distinctive call…then when I got home and was opening up the front door, I noticed a big ole toad sitting part way under the umbrella that David had left outside to dry. I bent down and softed his back very gently with one finger. He didn’t startle, but he did start believing it might be a good idea to jump up to get my finger off of him. Right behind him, I watched a little geko running into the folds of the umbrella and if all that wasn’t enough, after I went inside I heard the very LOUD distinct sound of a Cicada right outside our front door. I was able to look through the glass and see it hanging from the light flaring out it’s wings with every note.

Maybe it’s because it’s been raining pretty heavy all day here in our part of Texas that everything seems so alive tonight, but I am very grateful to see all the evidence of nature everywhere I turn. I’m not sure, yet, what I’m going to do to help with the animals who have been killed or hurt or displaced from the oil spill, but for right now I can make a difference in any animal’s life who I come up against by treating them with respect and love. I’ve always believed that the animal, plant, and insect world are all connected to a big overlapping grid (I suppose we humans have a similar one too) and so I’ve always believed that what happens to one end of the spectrum, affects the other. Just like when a dew drop falls on one end of a spider web, the vibrations are felt throughout.

So, I know that the word is out there in the ether now about what is going on with various aspects of the living. Tonight it feels to me that all animal kind is asking for our reassurance. Let’s give it to them. Even if it is as simple as the joy that my friend Sandy felt when she looked out at a wheelbarrow full of rain earlier this evening and watched a Cardinal taking a wonderful little bath. Give your love and appreciation freely. Every little bit of it helps. Every little bit.