It came striding across the kitchen floor,
the rose chafer (Cetonia aurata),
beneath a table by the window,
inhabited by disarmed pepper plants

Under my close scrutiny
it drew in its legs in fright
and assumed the role of an anonymous, indeterminate object,
but I slipped a sheet of A4 notebook paper
underneath it
and placed it in one of the pots,
in whose soil I thought it would be better off

We always have plenty of these welcome rose chafers
out in our garden compost

It kept its legs tucked beneath it,
in its survival response,
but later that day it had disappeared

I felt relief (at its survival),
which I hoped I shared with the rose chafer –
but the following day the Wild Wife found it marching
across the floor again,
and took another sheet of A4 paper
and carried it outside into the grass beyond the veranda,
so it could prepare for winter
in its natural way,
perhaps in one of the hügel beds

I realise, as I write this,
that we probably should have offered it some sugar water
before letting it go

I felt for it,
felt its intention, its striving, its drive, its agency,
in my own body –
the force that permeates all living things
and gives each its categorical imperative,
in a twisted sense of the term,
which Immanuel K probably wouldn't have liked;
the drive to act in accordance with its nature,
in line with evolution, species and tried-and-tested functions,
in the chain of all life on this planet,
where interconnections spin viabilities around the sphere
within its thin atmosphere; its biosphere,
in the web of life, which is our wonder

To make things difficult for the rose chafer
is to make things difficult for oneself –
but the principal reason for helping the rose chafer
that has found itself in trouble
is nevertheless not the general benefit
to the living environment as such,
but what happens within us
when we feel tenderness for,
and concern for all living things,
whether it be a rose chafer
or our grandchildren;
sensations that involve us all,
from mosquito to elephant –
for the idea that a human being should have greater “value”
on some kind of “scale of values” than the rose chafer
is precisely an idea, a fixed idea,
an anthropocentric position
taken by one species against all others,
which has no logical
or utilitarian relevance whatsoever,
but is a dangerous illusion entertained by a species
that is flooding the biosphere
and suffocating creation;
an invasive species; Homo sapiens sapiens,
dragging us down into a common abyss –
for without mosquitoes, earthworms and algae
we ourselves will slowly but surely be erased
from the face of the Earth,
and the planet itself will become a lifeless desert

Together we are strong,
in a community that without exception
embraces all life, all living beings,
who only together, in mutual dependence,
can continue to live –
in what Buddhists call prat?tyasamutp?da;
dependent arising; beroende uppkomst.

Since 1970, monitored vertebrate populations have declined by an average of 73%.
In freshwater environments, monitored populations have declined by an average of 85%.
Terrestrial populations have declined by 69%.
Marine vertebrate populations have declined by 59%.
These figures are the findings of Living Planet Report 2026, published by the World Wide Fund for Nature in collaboration with the Zoological Society of London.

These changes have taken place over a span of time that is not even an instant in the history of the planet.