Justicia and Justice

by Nicolette L. Cagle

The Justicia is blooming again at Sennet’s Hole, in its predictable rhythm. I wonder when Justice last bloomed on this American continent? 

Humans sometimes seem unpredictable, but that isn’t clear-eyed seeing. We pretend we are unknowable so we don’t have to confront the facts of our true nature, the good and the bad alike.

It is a simpler task, but by no means easy, to study the delicate pink blooms of a riverside forb, watch the work of its pollinators, watch it go to seed and slip into a fully herbaceous state again before lying down in winter for a long rest that fuels a springtime renewal.

Perhaps that is what we need. A long rest, a few months to set down the tools of work and war, to sit and see the beauty around us, to recognize our interconnectedness and remember the sweet call of love. And then, after our recuperation, we can arise again with love in our hearts and mutual respect in our deeds, and allow the human experience to be an intra- and interspecific mutualism, one of reciprocity within our species and between the many species with whom we share this wondrous, wild world.