Bits of wildness

Finding wildness, nature in its rough-cut form, is essential. A few trees, some slowly degrading wood and rock. A hawk. Any of it is a rejoiner to all the artiface that is our world. I look for it wherever I am. Today, as everyday at work in Annapolis, I walk through a small patch of trees with some 80 years of age on them. It is dark this morning and raining. I catch a glimpse of one of the chipmunks that use this area as shelter. Their lives, lived so close to mine. Theirs is outside, mine in the steel and brick and glass building nearby. Theirs is brief. Mine much longer. Theirs is primal -- food, procreation, bodily function. Mine has the essentials and art and thinking and books and God. But, I envy them their wildness.