Heroes Not Zombies

When the Sun’s rays fall in a certain direction some of the otherwise invisible webs crisscrossing the forest become startlingly obvious. I’m always in awe at the creative ability of a spider. Goodness knows how many of them share this little part of the planet with me. I have the impression I only manage to see a fraction of them and most of the time I only think about their webs when I walk into long thin strands which seem to stretch from one end of the garden to the other.

These physical webs which are illuminated from time to time, or bejewelled with water droplets early some mornings are only a manifestation of what lies behind them. There must be whole communities, whole networks of relationships, vast numbers of invisible pathways throughout the entire garden. Almost like a parallel spider universe.

Then as was sitting drinking a morning coffee after a couple of hours of sun baked weeding I noticed several little lizards, one running along the wall from the window to the door, one making its way along the path, another disappearing under the decking. And I thought, I wonder how many lizards live here? And what do their invisible pathways and connections look like? Aren’t they living in a parallel lizard universe?

I closed a shutter the other afternoon and out flew five tiny bats who had been sleeping behind it. I often see bats swooping around at dusk. I wonder where they live, what routes they normally take through the garden and what their connections and relationships are like? They live in this same small part of the planet as me but in a parallel bat universe!

You know about the multiverse theory of reality right? The idea that there are an infinite number of intersecting parallel universe? Kinda mind boggling isn’t it? But perhaps it’s easier to envisage the multiple universes cohabited by me and all the other forms of life in this one garden. Each of us living in our own particular scale, having our own unique perspectives, our own needs and desires, our own loves and losses, our distinctive behaviours and timescales.

Wow, what a thought! All these vast invisible webs of being and becoming, intersecting, interconnected and interdependent.

Isn’t this an astonishing world?