I'm feeling very restless and philosophical tonight, so I'm hoping writing will help that.

I've been questioning humans relationship with nature. Not humans as a whole, but humans as individuals.

Since I moved into my apartment, I've found myself loving everything nature has to offer. I love opening my windows and listening to the rain. I love watching the spiders that live in my stairwell. I love standing in my parking lot and looking up and the moon, the stars, the planets and the clouds. Looking at the night sky is my favourite thing out of the three. Anyway, my point is that, in the past two months, I have grown to have a deep respect and love for nature.

Since the 2nd of October, I've been wondering if someone who respects nature is respected more by it.

How can I pinpoint this date, you ask? Well, I was on my way home from work that night and had forgotten to turn the light on outside of my apartment. I live on the lower level, so, obviously, you have to go down stairs to get to my apartment. I was heading down the stairs at full speed (which has apparently become my default speed in life) and I noticed that my neighbors had left their trash outside of their door again. I also noticed something black right next to it. I didn't think anything of it until I was on the third step from the bottom and the black thing moved! Actually, it whipped it's head around to look at me. Yep, that's right....a skunk.

We both just kind of froze. The truly odd thing was that I really wasn't that scared, I was just startled to see it standing five feet from me just looking at me. I had my hands up as if someone was pointing a gun at me just to show the skunk that I had nothing to harm it. At this point, I also began *talking* to the skunk. "I'm sorry. I'm not going to hurt you. I really just want to get to my apartment so I can change my clothes," I explained to it as if it actually cared. It didn't run. It didn't make a motion to spray me either. In fact, it did exactly the opposite. It turned so it was actually *facing* me and continued to look at me. I continued to stay where I was for a moment before I very slowly began to put my foot down on the second step from the bottom. The skunk continued to just look at me. I then stepped down again so I was on the same level with the skunk. I continued to face him as I backed toward my apartment. He still just stood there, watching me.

I went into my apartment, changed my clothes and called my friend Jenni who was supposed to pick me up and told her not to go down the stairs because there was skunk down there. After a few minutes of frantically brushing my teeth and reapplying deodorant that had long since faded away, I grabbed my keys and reached for the doorknob. I suddenly remembered the skunk. I cracked my door open and peered out. He was still happily munching away on my neighbor's trash.

"Pssst," I said, actually speaking to the skunk again. I got no reaction so I opened the door a bit more. "Hey!" I said. This got his attention. He stopped eating and turned his head toward me. "I'm coming back out," I explained before opening the door a bit more so I was standing in the doorway. "I just have to go back up the stairs so Jenni can pick me up," I explained as if he could actually understand or cared about what I was saying.

What I'm about to tell you is what makes this whole thing one of the most surreal experiences of my entire life.

The skunk actually, once again, turned around to face me as if he was letting me know that he was not going to spray me. Just to make sure that the skunk was not planning on ambushing me, I moved very slowly as I closed and locked the door to my apartment and made my way back to the stairs. The skunk never moved. I just stood there and looked at me until I was half way up the stairs, then it turned back to it's dinner as if I had never been there.

It was now my turn to stare. I looked at the skunk for a few moments because I could not believe what had just happened. It was as if the skunk had understood what I was saying. By no rights should I have been smelling like cucumber melon deodorant rather than...well....whatever skunks spray you with. Skunks spray to defend themselves when they're scared. I definitely startled him as much as he startled me when we first saw one another on my way down the stairs.

I know animals like dogs and lions can sense fear in humans. Does that hold true for skunks? I can't really explain why, but I honestly wasn't scared of the skunk. I was startled to see him five feet from me, but I was more fascinated by him than scared.

Back to what I was saying about respecting and being respected by nature (every English teacher I've ever had would be proud--bringing the conclusion back to the opening statement...go me!). I have several friends who are scared of things such as spiders, wild animals, etc. I'm wondering if one of those people would have gotten sprayed if they had been in the situation I was in. I wonder if the skunk would have sensed fear, gotten scared also and instinctively sprayed.

Anyway, that's my question that I'm going to be pondering for a while. Actually, I think it may be one of life's great questions that I'll never be able to answer.

Time to go look at the stars and listen to the night.