If you talk to the animals they will talk with you and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them you will not know them and what you do not know, you will fear. What one fears, one destroys.

Chief Dan George

The dog

First of all, it’s hard not to like you. We instinctually like people. We like to be close to you at all times. That’s why you need to kick us out of the bed. Why wouldn’t we want to sleep together? We are so grateful for all those things you do for us: Cleaning, feeding, petting. How did we get so lucky? And what more, life is exciting, isn’t it? We are excited about the sun, the air, the bouncy ball, the neighborhood roads. It’s very hard for us to understand that you might not feel the same way. We’ll never quite figure out why you prefer to be clean and walk around like you do. When you are angry or anxious this is very frightening for us. You don’t seem to be able to see how obviously unpleasant these things are. We can feel every vibration of an angry footstep or slam of the door. We shut our eyes and try and pretend we are having a bad dream. When you shout at each other it feels like you are throwing little needles at our ears! We wish you wouldn’t. But we can forget quickly, and a lovely warm tone of voice is like heavenly music to our ears.

The tree

We’ve got a good view from up here, especially us old folk. I’ve been alive for hundreds of years. That’s enough to see a few generations pass by. The kids, growing older, people leaving and going. You all think you’re the first to do something, but in most cases there’s been people doing similar things to you before. I’ve seen a lot. Every day lots of people walk past me. Most of you are hurrying. We can’t hurry. We settle in one place and we ‘bed down’. We grow up and down and out, but we don’t race around like you lot. Most of you hurry past without looking, staring at your phones and sometimes tripping on our roots, which always makes us laugh. Animals and insects show us more attention. Animals don’t really hurry. Even ants go at a ‘proper’ pace. But I like being useful, like you do. I do lots of little jobs for the environment, plus I’m good to look at. But I just don’t get so stressed or focused on productivity like you do. Some years I just don’t grow very well, or give much fruit. That’s fine by me.

The mountain

From up here, you all look like ants. It’s a little too hard to make out all your little goals, aspirations and plans. To us, they all sort of all blend into one thing. You think a tree has seen some things? We’ve seen entire civilizations come and go. Wars. Famines. Diasporas. Humans really get to do a lot. For us mountains, we really are in for the long haul. That’s not to say we can’t appreciate the small things. The clouds, the sun, the wind. The snow thawing in the spring. We understand all that but there’s not much point thinking ‘day by day’ when we will be around for millions of years, and from a certain perspective a mountain never dies. It’s fun to see the more adventurous humans scale our faces. It doesn’t make much sense to us, but we hope they have a good time. Some slip and fall but we get the sense that they were go out doing what they loved. Humans are always ‘proving something’, but once you get to our size and strength, what’s left to prove?

The Person

Peering through another persons eyes can be a bit unsettling. Perception is everything and through your eyes, the world looks so different. I’m stuck holding your map, which is filled with so much information and instructions. It tells me who my parents are, my height, my ethnicity. It’s got all your memory – everything you’ve ever experienced. But it’s also subjective. That’s the hardest thing. I take on how you feel about those things. How you feel about your history, your job, your face. Your addictions drag me in one direction, leaving me stuck in little habitual whirlpools. In some areas of life I can see my options dry up, as I’ve settled on a ‘certain way of doing things’. And of course your fears. These are like little stones dotted across your life that you have avoided turning over and looking under. Most of all, I’m ruled by your thoughts. Most of these are boring and repeat over and over. Self talk. Opinions about everything. We could do with less of these. More peace and quiet. It’s not a bad life that you’ve got, but it’s noisy in here!