A Diary From Planet Earth

I've been feeling a little down lately.  Well, really down, actually. And just when I couldn't stand it any longer, the perfect day happened.  A brisk, cool morning with no humidity and no smoke - the offer was too tempting! We played hooky and got in the car.  A picnic was purchased and we drove to the river, watching ospreys and cormorants hunt for their breakfast while we ate ours. Never one to miss a trick, a family of crows recognized our car from the last time we fed them and demanded a do-over. We filled our lungs with the cleanest air they'd had in weeks, tinged with the smell of ions and river clay. We decided to wait a bit before dessert, so we drove around the backroads for a while. Mom bought tomatoes at our favorite honor stand and we saw the old familiar sights: falling-down barns built from ancient black wood; ginger cows watching their calves being loaded into a truck, never to be seen again; and wild human children with dirty feet enjoying their last day ...

Hello, I am a human. It has been 12,445 solar days since my birth. It has been 3,887 solar days since the end of the world (as predicted by the ancient Maya civilization.) I wonder if they were right, and the past 11 years have just been a dream. Sometimes the dream is a nightmare. The planet is burning and the air is unbreathable. This week, my family has been hiding in the basement from tornadoes. I spend more and more time hiding inside, staring at a screen, trying to connect with other humans. So far my efforts have been largely unsuccessful. I do not have a mate, and am now probably too old to acquire one. This makes me feel lonely. But I am lucky in ways other humans are not. I'm closer to the flora and fauna of this planet. Many humans believe these life forms cannot be communicated with, but I talk to them every day. They are my friends. In the morning, I walk outside and say hello to my Sugar Maple friends. I ask them about the night they had, when the wind rushed through ...