hope within *the speed of dark

so say the Davids...

I watched David Attenborough's a Life On Our Planet his "witness statement" as he reflects on his career as a naturalist and the devastating changes he has seen in his own lifetime. The beauty captured on this blue dot is immense. My heart swelled with every shot from Wildebeests in their hundreds, to the gentle giant blue whales, the phenomenal colours of ocean corals, exotic fish, the bird life seem to mimic the deep sea creatures in their wild bizarre varieties and movements. All the time referencing the years clocking past, the human population exploding as is our carbon footprint whilst the wild life numbers horrifically plummeting in this short time. Now i know why i’d put off watching it as I knew the outcome all too well.This was produced in 2020 and David seems almost too innocent concluding with how we can swing it back and protect and improve what we have by, renewables, eating less meat, having less babies and re-wilding areas that have been destroyed like the mighty Amazon.Offering us some small HOPE to continue the fight. With less than 4% wildlife left on the planet, the weight of 2025 reality has hit with Oligarchs and tech-titans jostling for positions world over. This short sighted return to fossil fuel and clearing what little is left of the forests now seems unstoppable. We are living in a dystopian Margaret Atwood novel where extinction rebellion has lost its teeth swinging towards the pulling down of the fragile scaffolding we call democracy. Has it failed the people?. ‘ Everything must come undone before it gets better” is a song I wrote some 20 years ago now and yet I know man has the power to destroy the very thing we all love.

A koala family has made a home in a highly populated place in our coastal town, which is inundated with tourists. I watched as a crowd gathered below her sleeping body perched in the cleft of a lone gum tree and witnessed the pack mentality as their voices grew more and more demanding trying to wake her. A couple of young guys even attempted to climb the tree. All the time I watched the nervous animal with its baby onboard become more and more disturbed looking out over the canopy for a safer tree to escape. Without much effort I found myself moving towards the loudest of the kids and in gentle voice pleading - ‘I think we should all move on as we’re scaring her and she might do something dangerous’. It only took a few of their mothers to lead them away quietly thanking me and within no time the tree stood alone and the koalas again safe and so were our cortisol levels. Pack mentality is what frightens me the most. Jan.6^th comes to mind. Would an individual even attempt such madness? I know I could write reams on the negatives of what’s happening to our beautiful planet and how we as a species are doing a successful job of fucking her up, using her up but what of the remedy, this feels a way more positive way to engage my mental panic.

With more and more environmental warriors being silenced for fear of being locked up or even killed we can only look within and focus on our own backyards, our communities where we have small connections and control. It felt no accident losing the great artist David Lynch the same time as America inherited their now president(s). I have never seen the web so flooded with one person’s ideas, a love that seems to keep going as people share his thoughts on meditation and creativity. All these insightful instructions and reminders are a true blessing for me, counter balancing the weight of the darkness that seems to be jamming our inboxes.

The tuber roses given to me last Thursday at the local farmers markets picked by a women from her garden, nearly brought me to tears with a simple gesture of kindness. There’s a lame brush turkey waiting at the backdoor for a feed, as somebody didn’t just break it’s toes but also cut off its beak.The world is waking under a light rainfall, how can i smell winter in this summer rain? The large frangipani bouquets are at their peak and the water dragons are staring me down for a piece of banana as our the gentle swamp wallaby’s hiding beneath the scrub.

It is the Chinese new year of the Wood Snake and transformation is afoot, I personally hope we all come out of this a little better than before… (i just went to the letter box and a green tree snake was across my path.i stood and made a wish for the whole world.)

Thanks to my dear friend Alan Cholodenko who coined the potent title *the speed of dark, over a coffee back in the late 80’s Bondi Sydney.I miss those mornings.