The serious nature of nature

I had to stop here and be serious for a moment. The thing about life is, it's multi-faceted. You can't just ignore the negative stuff. Actually, it really is true that the difficult situations are the ones that mold our characters, teach us lessons, and act as a gauge to our ethical quality. Then there is that side that we'd just as soon pretend isn't there--the part with violence and hatred and natural selection. I was awakened early this morning by what turned out to be a coyote attacking one of our kittens. I'm mentioning it because the situation has held its grasp on me all day (I even called in sick to work today, because I literally did not sleep at all after that. Any little sound and I would dart to the window). And because a blog is place to chart one's thoughts and feelings and ideas...good AND bad. Positive AND negative. I mean, I can't blame the coyotes--poor things are being forced out of their territories by urban sprawl, and they have little to eat. (Read Barbara Kingsolver's excellent book, Prodigal Summer). But what I don't understand is the cruelty of nature. It has me asking God, "why?", and that is never a good thing. It's just all so terribly sad. And it's not so simple as being able to bring the cats indoors. We have wild cats that we feed here. We have thought about calling the feral cat coalition so we can trap them and get them spayed, but there are some other circumstances that get in the way. We do the best we can. We try to welcome all forms of life. As much as this country fears and misunderstands Islam, my understanding is that it is Islam that teaches that God is in all things. In the rock, in the plant, in the animals....so treat the earth and its inhabitants well. I do follow that philosophy. It is also my understanding that the reference to God giving "dominion" to man over the animals in the Christian bible actually means "care for", but has been blurred over the ages. I just feel so horrible. I can't help with the what ifs. What if I would have gotten there one second earlier? One second later? Would it have been better? I just would have preferred to remain blind to that side of life. I wonder if I'll be able to sleep tonight?