Photo by Al Bolter
Another summer long weekend draws to an end. The roads jammed with city goers as they return to their urban domiciles. They rush home from their cottages, cabins, and tents; they rush home from that place they escape to; they rush home from nature that untamed frontier.
German-born physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955) said “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”
There is something soothing about a break to the wilds, where the concrete jungles have yet to reveal their offspring of paved roads, glass structures, and underground labyrinths of drainage we call sewers. Unrelenting, nature reveals its boundless energy in aspiring trees, sweeping meadows, glistening waters, and the mesmerizing sights and sounds of a million creatures, all interacting in a world of their own. And it’s in this boundless energy that the true essence of life springs; for what is life, except for energy?
To escape to nature, is to escape to ourselves. It is here that we witness that untamed frontier whence we long ago sprung. It is here that something deep within stirs, rumblings of a longing to connect with that which once was. The swoosh of swaying evergreens, the sparkling flow of water over rock, the patient passing of clouds in a pastel-blue sky, all remind us of the beauty and grace that nature can yield. All remind us that we are but a small part of something larger and more powerful than we can ever dream to be.
Caught in our world of booked appointments, rushed calls, and last-minute meetings, our self-importance knows no bounds. We beat our chest; we pound our fist; we sing our praise, but dare we debark to the untamed frontier, lest we realize that self-importance is but a figment of our imagination. Nature humbles, where self-importance inflates.
It is perhaps this humbling experience that draws us to yearn for something greater than us. Nature speaks the truth because it only knows the truth. There are no false pretenses; there are no artificial barriers; there’s only the truth. Sometimes ugly, sometimes beautiful, nature makes no apologies for what is, or for what it does; it simply is. Nature care not for who one is or where one cometh; nature is an equal opportunity employer. In its eyes, it will comfort and torment all alike.
So as summer draws to an end and the fall leaves appear (see Fall is Here…), yet another facet of nature comes into sight. With the glory of the fall season upon us, let us remember the force and power that nature is; let us remember where we are to be found…
For more, check out The C.A.T. Principle: Change, Action, Trust – Words to Live By, a Global Ebook Awards GOLD Winner for Best Self-Help Non-Fiction Ebook of 2014, available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. See the latest Amazon reviews here. Now revised and expanded, and a Nominee for the Best Self-Help Non-Fiction Ebook of the 2015 Global Ebook Awards.
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A 2014 Global Ebook Awards GOLD Winner for Best Non-fiction Self-help Ebook.
A 2015 Global Ebook Awards Nominee for Best Self-Help Non-Fiction Ebook