We are not a single being, we are a community – various micro biomes, our cells, our matrilineal mitochondria inside our cells. We are the planet they live on. Benevolent and oblivious. Just as the Earth is to us.

We are the Earth’s immune system. We co-evolved with the plants and other animals. Hunting the old and infirm, gathering dead and diseased wood for fires. Later coppicing trees for polewood to build and helping them rejuvenate in the process.

The earth has a fever and it’s our job as the immune system to repair what is broken and restore the earth’s health. It doesn’t matter whose fault it is, or even why it happened, what matters is how are we going to fix it? I think people, permaculture and perseverance are the key.

The humans who survived the black plague had stronger immune systems. Their descendants do too, and if their immune system doesn’t have enough work to do….it gets bored or anxious or hypervigilant. When that happens, we see allergies, and auto-immune diseases.

‘Black death’ survivors had plague-resistant genes that may boost their descendants’ risk of autoimmune disease | Live Science

I know they’ve found that folks who grow up in rural environments or spend time on a farm have fewer allergies. Have they studied that for autoimmune diseases?

It’s ok to want to do more research and learn more, it’s not ok to use that as a reason to not do what we think should be done. It’s true that maybe in the future we’ll look back and see that we made mistakes, but the only way we’ll know that is if we MAKE those mistakes.

When you know better, you do better. Do the best you can and know that it is enough, and that others are doing their best too. And then when you learn more, instead of wasting your time and energy on regret, accept the mistakes and do better. All success is built on a foundation of failure.

If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not trying hard enough. If you aren’t growing, you aren’t living. Mistakes and learning are what fuel growth. Just be your authentic self, and if you don’t know what that is, then go experiment and find out!

Horton heard the Whos. Someone will hear you, you just need to make some noise.

We are here! We are here! We are here!