There are many strange things happening lately, with the bird, fish and weather. However, most of us really do not understand the complexities of things and we shouldn't be too disturbed by them. We have it pretty good here in the West and most of us aren't exposed to sudden shifts in our natural world. This in a way makes us more leery of things we don't understand. Sometimes, it can frighten us and make us irrational.

In some countries extremes occur on a regular basis and yet the people find ways to embrace the power of nature at any extreme. Some fair better than others. Some prepare better than others. In India there are remote areas where peoples lives are dependent on bamboo. Every 40 - 50 years the bamboo fruits. The bamboo rots during this time. There is so much fruit on the forest floor that huge armies of rats quickly develop to eat it. Within a short time the forest is completely saturated with rats the forest floor looks as though it is constantly moving.

Eventually the bamboo fruit runs out. This usually occurs just before harvest time in those affected areas. The rats then ravage the crops and the people starve to death. Some of the people guard their crops to try and survive and some learn to eat the rats. This phenomenon is happening this year, it will be interesting to see what happens with scientists trying to find ways to save these indigenous people from mass starvation.

Another harsh place is Australia. In the seventies and eighties they had  a drought that lasted ten years. Eventually it rained and the children ran in terror not knowing what was happening. A few days later those children were being airlifted to safety due to flooding. Australia can also have a sudden massive forest fire followed by rain for years that grow back large forests.

Some people actually find beauty in these sudden violent shifts in nature. They don't attribute them to anything man made or caused by global climate change. They know these things have been happening for hundreds of years and can actually enjoy it.

Dorothy McKellar said it best with her description of what is in the hearts of Australians years ago.

The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies -
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.