Dreams

Maple syruping ends early, dry and wet cycles are disturbed, and the oceans, always the anchor, are in trouble. These are the things that worry me. I can’t fix most of them, but I can ameliorate some of them. I’ve been working for years on improving the garden soil so my plantings are more drought-resistant. I’ve also rewilded the back of our lot to enhance plant and animal diversity. My war on the lawn has ended in a total loss for the lawn. The front of the house is now totally given over to perennials that don’t get watered.

I am doing better than an old friend. He binges on Jolly Rancher gummies whenever he thinks about the climate. I don’t want his dental bill! But he lives deep within a tract of woodland. His worries revolve around fire seasons. That’s a new turn of phrase in our area of New England. Watching parts of Canada close to us burn last year was more than a bit disturbing; it was an unpleasant wake-up call. That sort of thing happens annually to people thousands of miles away.

My friend says that his sleep remains undisturbed. Except for an occasional dream in which he wakes up in a climate refugee camp.