Whispers from the Cave

Whenever we imagine a quiet, peaceful place, we instinctively associate it with something lifeless-a place where nothing happens...The tranquility of a cave-its silence, the cool, steady temperature throughout the day, and the total darkness, so hard to imagine for anyone who hasn't experienced it-is like holding your hand in front of your eyes, so that you can smell it, feel its coolness... but you can't see the movement of your fingers... that's when it seems to us that the darkness and silence are almost tangible.Yet there is no such stillness; thousands upon thousands of terrestrial and aquatic creatures live there, moving and struggling for survival. Many of them lack eyes, because they don't really need them to navigate their surroundings, having instead developed other sensory organs essential for life in that environment.With imperceptible sounds, ants, scorpions, and spiders move about; our ears pick up the shuffling of some animals across the cave floor and the rustling of insects and ticks in the guano, many of them with colors that delight the eyes of those who observe them, and every day, we learn to love what we call Nature.