“We can ignore reality, but we cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality,” the novelist Ayn Rand wrote. But was she correct? It seems people are entirely capable of ignoring nature’s messages, of missing the evidence that shows us the costly consequences of human destruction of natural habitats and species. In March this year, as the Coronavirus caused lockdowns world wide, UN environment chief Inger Andersen said, “Nature is sending us a message.” That the failure to heed a warning is costly, is something most of us learn only through experience–if we ever learn at all. Minnesota poet Judith Feenstra was educated in Social Gerontology, and maintains an interest in the field of aging by paying special attention to works of poetry that reflect the aging perspective. One of those perspectives, which she brings to this poem, is the wisdom of experience, formed by a life attuned to the messages of nature.