The creatures have caught my attention and I must relay their message – a missive from the Rusty Patch Garden

Hi.

We, the creatures, are alive. Our preference is to remain thus. In between food and rest, we enjoy play and peace. That will not be unfamiliar to you.

Many of we creatures are mothers.

Many are alone.

Many of us are aged. Injured. Tired.

Our social environments are complex and there is much we communicate that humans cannot and will not understand at this time.

We do not see the world the way you do, but we must live in the world you’ve reshaped, in actions large and small, intentional and neglectful.

We find you often do not know what you’re looking at.

Or the context of our existence in relation to your own.

We find ourselves sometimes admired and often reviled, but most frequently, misunderstood.

Our variety is so vast and our niche often so narrow, it rejects description.

The very mouth-shape of our name can cause alarm, confusion, fear among you humans. You may not like to hear what we call you, as you storm and shriek and stomp.

But it is true that we creatures understand you. We are all trying to survive.

We know you will dearly miss us if you lose us. But you have already lost so much that you cannot look right at it anymore. Sometimes we creatures wonder if you believe you are the only ones with the capacity to experience loss. Or grief.

It may come to a point where you or your offspring will read a robot-written article about us, our traits and behaviours that have never directly witnessed. You may think, such a being could not truly exist. “That can’t be real,” you may say when you see a video of a leafcutter bee excising a perfect circle of leaf and flying away with it held beneath her, taking it to line her nest. “It’s too perfect.”

Even loving the cute and pretty among us more shows your limited desire to understanding our depth.

We also understand that you are individuals as well as a group. (Or did you think you also invented having a unique perspective?)

You don’t know us. We don’t know you.

But deep inside, you remember. We remember.

And we know better than most that everyone can change.

With love and caution,

the creatures.