Where does it go, the time. During a Pandemic time goes fast and slow. Nothing is as usual – If your work is recognized as essential, you have likely never worked so hard. And if your work is non essential you have other worries. For both, life is surreal.

As we all reset our expectations and plans – we have the opportunity to give thought to all the news briefs we watch. For me, it’s not only the news briefs about how our people are living, or not. But how the natural world is responding to our lessened impact on the Earth. I not only directly witness these responses, but I imagine what it must seem like to the rest of the living things on the planet. Not imagining in an anthropomorphic way, but based on my previous observations and experiences in environments where wildlife exists. Knowing that the deer don’t move as freely during the day, and birds are more quiet when we are in their woods.

Are the deer and others moving more easily in the daytime? Is there less concern for the song the birds sing when we are not too close for their comfort? What about the wolves and grizzly that have begun to move around more in search of food?

What do the changes in animal behavior say about their perception and experience of our behavior in and near their habitat? What could it mean for all of us if  we considered these observable impacts on the other beings on the Earth – as a whole experience?