Life

Many people have a fantasy about "saving lives". It used to be that if you asked a young person what they wanted to be when they grew up they would say, "a doctor or a nurse, or a fireman". I don't know what they say these days. In reality, we all save lives every day but we put an end to lives every day also.

I think I have become aware of this more since living on this farm. We all live in connection with many other lives on a regular basis. Some more with human life, others with animals. Days go by when I see only a couple of people but thousands of animals (if you count all the insects).

I save thousands of lives by not using pesticides and end many lives by hand; when I drop insects into buckets of soapy water. I move turtles to the side of the road, watch out for squirrels, and try to educate about snakes, but some snakes lose their lives here by being in the wrong place at the wrong time when someone else is in the same place (I won't name any names).

I feel some emotions when ever a life is saved or lost-- some I feel for longer than others. I still remember sitting with a bird as it died after flying into a window a couple of years ago (that one was not my fault). Last night, I hit a deer for the first time in my life. I probably killed the deer- it was too dark to see where it went or what happened to it. I felt terribly sad. Today, I saved a sweat bee from drowning in a bucket of water. As it crawled on my hand and dried itself, revved its wings a couple of times, and flew off I felt wonderful.