With the all-consuming chaos that has swept the world like wild-fire, there has been seemingly little room for anything other than the daily doomsday briefings. On the one hand, this Butterfly Effect has revealed the fragility of our increasingly interdependent system; yet, on the other, it has triggered a deep, global draw of breath – a sort of natural human retrospective – from which we have seen flutters of hope and a chance to choose how we return to a new “normal”.
As we have taken a step back, nature has gained some ground and resurfaced in pleasantly surprising ways. From coyotes in Central Park, to mountain lions in Santa Monica, and even the odd peacock announcing itself to the neighborhood. Dog shelters and homes across the US have seen a huge spike in successful placements for rescues and record numbers of dogs fostered.
With humans on lockdown, the animal world has wasted no time in paving the way to what a natural rebalancing might look like in the future. That’s not to say you’ll be ousted off your usual bar stool by a gang of giddy goats – something the late Dylan Thomas might have seen in his day – but hopefully it will act as a reawakening as to how best share this world with nature. For all our interconnectedness, our multitasking, fast-paced, jet-setting lifestyles, we might in fact do far more good by doing a lot less – perhaps a mantra fit to define a new sense of norm.
