The world closes itself down. Streets empty. Storefronts’s OPEN signs stay dark. There’s change on the wind. And maybe something else. Something invisible to humans but hunts them all the same.

In some fair and beautiful way the earth balances itself. What people could but wouldn’t do, nature is doing with something we named COVID-19. Perhaps a holdover of that ideology that naming something or knowing something’s name gives us power over it.

Among us and between us and even inside of some of us, this unseen beast feeds. It preys on what destroys the planet best. It will not starve. We’re social creatures and even though some of us haven’t learned how to socialise yet, the beast knows we can’t stand being alone, can’t stand to be away from people, can’t stand disconnection, and that innate drive to connect and avoid loneliness is exactly what it needs. It is thriving.

It does not discriminate, like we do. It’s not that complicated. Not that judgemental. It is doing exactly what it does best. The pathetic excuses we have used throughout time to differentiate and dominate each other and everything else we come into contact with, including nature, don’t matter to it. Almost as if they never really mattered.

The true surprise is how unprepared we were for this, how unaware we were of the dangers, how ignorant of history. How arrogant. The more I think about it, the less surprising that is too.

Escalating isolation measures are changing day-by-day. The streets get a little more empty. The air clears and doesn’t taste like exhaust. There is no telling when this will end. One thing is certain: either it ends or we do. Seeing the natural beauty of the world with humans indoors makes it a real easy choice to make.