7-1-2015

I was thinking today about how lovely and fragile life is for creatures in nature, and for humans. There was that sturdy, industrious blue collar worker in Lakeville working in a drain tile trench. He a was killed when it collapsed on him. God bless him and his family in this hour of hurt.

At the parking ramp that I do maintenance for, I am also the groundskeeper. On the north side of the complex, when I was picking up trash that continually blows in from the Hilton hotel to the north. They have lined the edge of their property with us, with large river rock, quarter-size or so.

About two weeks ago, I noticed a most winsome, female killdeer scolding me and using her injured wing trick to lure me away from her nest. I stumbled towards the nest a few mornings ago, and she jumped right in front of me to chase me off, and protect her eggs. I quickly retreated.

The next day, when she was off feeding, I checked the nest and took note of three or four mottled brown eggs in it, in a small depression nest that she had made in among the bare, open rocks.

By yesterday, she was gone and silent. I am afraid that a raccoon got her at night when she was on the nest, or forced to abandon it so he could gobble down the eggs.

I rather miss her and it is eerily quiet in that corner of the property. I sensed that something tragic happened. There was an atmosphere in the air.

Then at two o'clock this morning (I sometimes drive a shuttle for them on the midnight shift) I see a big boar, about 27 pounds, come up over the fence from the Embassy Suites and head for our ramp and trash.

I was speculating that he got her, or chased her off. He is a smart, rough customer.

Human existence is as fragile as the life of a nesting killdeer. If God decides that nuclear war, a nasty virus worse than Ebola by a factor of 5, or a meteor is going to smash our planet, we are gone in an instance.

Life is fleeting, conditional and insecure. We would be wise to remember that wealth, liberty, freedom, peace, health, the presence of loved ones and life itself are temporary loans from Fate and God, and these loans can be rescinded without notice, fanfare or schedule, in a heartbeat.