Strange Weather

This has been an unusual year for weather (I include natural phenomena under the “weather” umbrella). We’ve had an earthquake and a hurricane in the same week. We’ve had the appearance of a rare red display of the Aurora Borealis far below the Mason-Dixon line. Now we have snow in October, with the leaves still on the trees.

My yard has red and yellow maples coated with snow, next to a still green leafed cherry tree, which is BLOOMING.  Earlier in the week, we were still in the 70’s and I was wearing sleeveless tops to work. Now the sun is shining and the snow is now melting as well as sublimating, and I still have bulbs to plant for spring. 

So, what does all this mean? My MIL thinks these are all signs we are in “end times”, and she hasn’t even seen all the stories about the Mayan Calendar. But why does it have to mean anything? Times change, and weather changes also. Our world is changing — warming, shivering, stretching. Our oceans are changing, and many of those changes are due to bad decisions we humans have made. 

There is that island of plastic that has gathered in the Pacific from trash carelessly discarded. Of course, it’s really not fair to call it an island. Sitting on a boat in the midst of it, you might not even notice the material. But there is a bigger, denser, true island of debris washed to sea by the tsunamis in Japan. Yes, the debris is man-made, but it being in the ocean is due to Nature. Will the two masses merge? Or will the debris island wash up on California shores in years to come?

Whatever happens, we will weather the changes. That’s what we do as humans, that is our strength. We adapt. But that shouldn’t mean that we just accept the changes. We’ve shown that we can alter our world; why don’t we try making it better. It’s almost Halloween. How about for Trick or Treat, we Treat the Earth — do just one thing to make it better. Recycle our plastic, pick up litter, plant some bulbs. Would that be so strange?