My mother always told me that I was born during a heat wave.
I checked the historical records of May 1962, and sure enough, a few days after I was born, temperatures soared to 34 degrees Celsius.
I can only imagine the discomfort of my nursing mother, in a tiny apartment, with a new tiny baby, with only maybe a fan, and definitely no air conditioning back in those days.
But I have always thought that explains why I love the heat.
I love the warmth on my skin, and don't even mind the humidity.
I thrive in the heat, adore the sunshine that accompanies it, and of course, everything to do with spring and summer.
The plants and flowers, long days and short nights, the birds and bees and even the insects.
Love the sandals, shorts and t-shirts; heading out the door without having to don hat, coat, boots and mitts.
But now the entire world seems to be heating up, warming to such a degree that people are dying.
I do recall Nostradamus made a prediction back in his day that the world would change in that the tropical would become cold, and the cold become tropical.
Perhaps that is what is happening.
We had an ice age; now we're having a fire age.
I have to admit that even for me, 40 degrees Celsius is indeed a bit too much.
I have nearly fainted and become overwhelmed with dizziness at that heat.
I admire the people in the countries who regularly live with that warmth in the summer: India, Caribbean, Southern States, Africa, South America.
I, personally, don't think I could do that.
Not without a fan, at the very least.
Heat kills, and although I know cold can do the same, there are precautions one can take.
Someone once said, there is no bad weather, only bad clothing choices.
One can always add a layer in the cold; prepare for emergencies as best one can; try to stay heated and hydrated and indoors where it's warm.
Heat, on the other hand, really has no mercy.
If one has no access to air conditioning, which is not a right but a privilege, then one faces a difficult situation.
One that can smother and suffocate, dehydrate and decimate.
Yes, heat is serious. So serious that people are drowning trying to stay cool during the current heat wave in Europe and the U.K.
And while yes, I was born during a heatwave back in the '60's, a chance warning perhaps of the increasing temperatures and warmth that may prove to be our undoing, I have my limits.
I am not sure how this fragile ecosystem of this beautiful planet has coped so far with our abuse; our nuclear bombs, our flagrant disrespect of the ozone layer, the repeated rockets and sendups that break through its protective shield. And we still wonder why our host is dying, rejecting us, testing us with its earthquakes and volcanoes, wildfires and hurricanes.
Perhaps because we clearly have no respect for it; and it may be too late to rectify that.
I am not sure how gracious Mother Earth can or should be at this point.
Testing nuclear weapons in her oceans, which modify our climates, and wondering why those oceans are warming, affecting all of our weather systems.
Leaving our human created waste and garbage and plastics to pile up and clog precious ecosystems, harming innocent creatures and the lands and waters they inhabit.
No wonder Mother Nature is pissed.
"Let them eat cake!", I can hear her say.
And I can't say we don't deserve it.
Setting wildfires that destroy homes and natural habitats, as what happened in California last year.
Affecting oceanic temperatures so drastically that they create colder or hotter temperatures in different land masses.
Melting arctic ice that is giving new meaning to waterfront properties. Soon they will be underwater properties with questionable riparian rights.
At any rate, what I mean to say is that although I am a heat lover, adoring the feel of warm air on my skin, enough is enough.
Please, dear Earth, let us have a cooler time ahead, with fewer extreme heat episodes, and a little more grace.