Category Archives: nature

THERE IS SOMETHING MISSING

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I am at Barnes and Noble on Wolf Road in Albany, it is just a minute or two past noon. Took myself out for coffee and two oatmeal raisin cookies; I am splurging.


It dawns on me that everything I am looking at was created by human beings. Born from the thoughts and creativity of human beings; mind you, in some cases, born from lack of creativity.



With some exceptions most of the books are essentially sprung from one mind with the attending influences of editors, agents and publishers. But it’s more than the books. The rugs, shelves, tables, chairs, lighting, wall colors, and more are all designed by people and ,more often than not, all of these things are driven in some significant measure by the desire to get something from people. Their money.



A woman just passed me wearing a rather nondescript winter jacket with the name of designer, Kenneth Cole, printed in large letters on the back, up where her shoulder blades are. This would make sense to me if it was a jersey for a sports team but, call me crazy, I’m having a hard time believing her name is Kenneth Cole.


I don’t want somebody’s name written on my clothing. But in this case, the name Kenneth Cole is their to assist in the effort to relieve people of their money.


Yet, who am I to judge?


There are a lot of people in this world making a lot of things and they bring a range of motivations to their work. There are authors, fashion designers and more who give their heart and soul to their work and are wonderfully creative. I was involved with a woman for awhile who made jewelry. But, using the word made understates the quality and result of her efforts. She created jewelry.


I do have one observation here that troubles me. Everything I see in front of me is human-driven and there is something missing. Something so essential to the human experience none of us would be alive without it. Nature. The unfettered, unabbreviated by people, reality of nature.


Nature’s truth. There is something essential, something spiritually, emotionally and physically nutritious for all of us in nature. Something I believe we ought to know, touch, see, smell, breathe, taste. That something I believe is, in a word, life. The light inside the bulb, the thought inside the mind, and the spirit that lives and breathes in every heart.


I do not pretend to know what happens to us after this life, if anything. But I strongly believe that if there is something after this life, we will be less suited for it if we stay isolated from nature.


Last thought, for now. Nature heals. And from my heart to your heart, we deserve to heal, you deserve to heal.

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NATURE’S EMBRACE

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Henry David Thoreau once wrote, “In wildness is the preservation of the world.” Not only do I agree that the preservation of the world can be found in the unfettered embrace and reality of nature, but the preservation of the soul, of our very being can be found there as well. After all, that is where we all come from and return to.


And so it is that in these days of reflection I have decided to again immerse myself in nature. Nature’s intentions are pure; they know no bigotry. The sun’s warmth and the bite of winter cold is there for all of us. There are also extraordinary moments to be experienced. Thoreau told of one when he wrote, “I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance that I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.” I too had one recently when I turned and saw a doe standing eight feet from me, looking right at me. There the two of us were, side by side, and for some reason that I will never understand but always treasure, she did not run. She simply gave me the once over, rightfully determined that I was not a threat to her, and proceed ed to feed on the nearby foliage. I named her Gretchen. She even let me take pictures of her.

There is something else that comes with time in nature: spiritual freedom. When I walk in the woods a moment comes when the woods and I are one and the same. My being is as related to the trunk of a tree or the stem of a flower as they are to the branches, leaves and flower petals. We are all joined in the web of sunlight and shadow, or the mystical embrace of a morning mist. A luscious tranquility fills the lungs, the heart, the soul. The healing nectar of peace runs through the veins and the trials of daily life take their rightful place in the storeroom for the trivial. There are many things to be seen in nature and – if you pay attention – they will make your heart smile.

Buddha was right when he said much of human suffering comes from our attachment to material things: possessions, money and so forth. When you allow the all of you to walk full length in nature, the nexus of life, it’s spiritual center, nature itself, will take you in her arms: a wondrous, healing embrace deserved by all.

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