I recently returned from a 4-day backpacking trip in the Sierras of California. Though I've been an avid backpacker for the past 10 years, I never cease to be inspired by the awe of a vast mountain vista, or the tranquility I feel listening to a babbling mountain stream.
John Muir once said, "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks".
Nature teaches us many lessons. It reminds us that we need to constantly adapt to conditions, outside forces, and every day challenges in order to survive. It tells us that there will be a tomorrow and that there is beauty in simplicity. Nature is all around us, ready to teach, but many times we’re too busy with everyday life that we forget to tune in and hear what it has to say.
As a society, we have gotten away from nature. We've moved from an agricultural country to a high-tech world filled with gadgets. Yet the current season seems ripe for many to once again get back to nature and to the land. There's a growing desire to learn how to not only respect what nature offers us, but to learn from it, and to be in tune with it. From growing your own food, to composting, to preserving food, the time for getting back to nature is flourishing.
Every time that we choose to be in nature, we can also choose to be with nature. What's the difference? There are many people who go to nature, but don't really commune with it. When we're with nature, we become a part of it... of the whole vast and interconnected universe. We are free and playful. Nature is creation, and when we merge with it, we merge with our own creative self.
John Muir once said, "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks".
Nature teaches us many lessons. It reminds us that we need to constantly adapt to conditions, outside forces, and every day challenges in order to survive. It tells us that there will be a tomorrow and that there is beauty in simplicity. Nature is all around us, ready to teach, but many times we’re too busy with everyday life that we forget to tune in and hear what it has to say.
As a society, we have gotten away from nature. We've moved from an agricultural country to a high-tech world filled with gadgets. Yet the current season seems ripe for many to once again get back to nature and to the land. There's a growing desire to learn how to not only respect what nature offers us, but to learn from it, and to be in tune with it. From growing your own food, to composting, to preserving food, the time for getting back to nature is flourishing.
Every time that we choose to be in nature, we can also choose to be with nature. What's the difference? There are many people who go to nature, but don't really commune with it. When we're with nature, we become a part of it... of the whole vast and interconnected universe. We are free and playful. Nature is creation, and when we merge with it, we merge with our own creative self.
“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is necessity; that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.” - John Muir
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