Thousands of people are stranded at the Munich Airport due to the volcanic ash hanging out in the stratosphere over Europe. Even Chancellor Angela Merkel has been affected by the continental haze that oozed from the base of the Eyjafjallajokull glacier. Flying back from a visit to the United States, she had to stop in Portugal instead of her planned destination of Berlin. Tens of thousands of others have jumped on trains or rented cars. One politician even took a bus from Hungary back home, braving the 600+ KM trip with other mortals who move slower than he.

How Nature teaches us the power of slow, enforcing its laws and bending its will against ours! If you were to ask any one of the travelers staked out in tents in the lobby of Munich airport, you might get a response of irritation. One brave soul admitted ‘we will sit and drink tea’, a marvelous German saying (Abwarten und Tee trinken), that implies an almost Zen-like acceptance of the here and now. But the no-fly zone has brought on a certain quiet in our skys that is both relaxing and notable.

As someone recently said to me, Nature will correct itself. It’s mankind we have to worry about.