The Mysteries of Nature

The Mysteries of Nature
Job 38 39- 39: 30

Often the first thing I hear in the morning is the squawking of a group of parrots who wander around our city, the descendants (says the urban legend) of pet birds that escaped from or were released by their owners. When I sit at my desk, I see squirrels foraging for nuts, and possibly blue jays bathing in a fountain. If I go for a walk in our block’s grounds, I may see two mallards that stray here from a pond a little way away. In the evening, a skunk occasionally wanders across our patio. Before bedtime the other night, I killed a black widow spider in the closet. At any time in the kitchen I may realize we have been invaded by ants. I think of our city as signifying a claim that the area belongs to humanity, but the forebearers of most of these creatures were present even before the Chumash Indians arrived, let alone the Europeans...