Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

We were supposed to go to the cabin today, but fires around made us wait, hoping for better air quality.  We decided to go tomorrow, and see for ourselves what the air is like.  Of course, a change in wind, new fires, extreme heat, and many other factors make this utter guesswork.  So we have reassured ourselves that if it's bad, we can leave, and come back up again later or not at all.  This is the new reality:  fires are bound to happen, the forests are tender from dead trees and climate change.  We will never again be as naive as we were for most of the thirty plus years we've owned the cabin.  Now fires are not elsewhere; they surround us.  I'm grateful we enjoyed the forest for so long, and we love it even with it's transformation because of the millions of trees that have died.  But it's a rapidly changing landscape, and a more dangerous one.  The suffering of the animals is relentless, and even here when we went on a hike around the reservoir this morning, we saw deer wanting to be near the water instead of up in the forested hills.  As we left, dozens of turkeys were under the shade of two oak trees, trying to cool off.  This is the reality deniers of climate change refuse to see.  I've got a feeling they don't walk in the forest, or camp, or fish in a mountain lake or enjoy any of nature's abundant beauty.  They have no heart for the trees, plants and creatures all around us, or even for any of us who feel it is essential to our souls.  They have already lost theirs.