Hope Borne by Courage

(Great Horned Owl)

As these solemn images took form, I couldn’t stop thinking of Woody Guthrie’s tune and words. 

This land is your land/ This land is my land.

I wonder if he could have imagined loss on this scale. To date, in 2021 alone, over 3.6 million acres have burned in California and Oregon, consuming thousands of houses and other buildings. This year and last, ten percent of the world’s Sequoias, the planet’s oldest trees, were lost. Unimaginable numbers of wild things burned with them and their populations will suffer for decades to come. 

I want to think Guthrie’s words sang out not to humans alone, but to all of earth’s creatures. He raised that chorus to celebrate his love for this land despite its flaws. I, too, protest and offer them as a wakeup call, a reminder of the irreversible damage we do to the only home we’ll ever have.