Nature Calms

                                  Just a little bunny in the yard. So cute!

 

When I was a teenager I had a poster on the wall in my room of a beautiful woodland waterfall  that said “You will never be lonely if nature is with you”.  The picture reminded me of the time we spent as a family at Tillman’s Ravine exploring the forest on steamy summer weekend afternoons when I was younger.  It was a place my mother loved, with waterfalls, wood plank footbridges over streams, and little pools where lily pads grew and water bugs skittered across the top of the water.  The water was so clear you could see the rocks on the bottom and minnows swimming near the edge.  It was a cool and inviting place on a summer afternoon.  I still love being in a natural environment, and when I’m feeling stressed I often step outside for a few moments and listen to the birds chirping and the wind moving the trees, and gaze at the sky for an instant dose of calm.

               When I think about nature, I am amazed at how it all works.  Somehow it all fits together, and while it can be frightening at times, it’s never boring.  One of the more interesting things to see is the creatures that live around us.  There are plenty of birds and squirrels, there’s groundhogs and chipmunks, and rabbits.  Now and then there are deer in our yard and I’m pretty sure they are the reason I don’t get too many blooming lilies as they find them as well as the lily-like flowers on the hosta to be tasty.  One very early morning my husband went out the door to go to work and came face to face with a huge deer who was probably snacking on the nearby hosta flowers.  Even though he was on the deck   and the deer was in the yard, it was quite a heart stopping way for him to start his day. Encounters with animals are not limited to deer.  Besides the squirrel that tried to take up residence in our attic a number of years ago, there was one who laid on the deck rail shaking his tail in a threatening manner and hissing at my daughter as she tried to leave for a flute lesson.  She had to go out the back door because that critter just wasn’t going to stop.  There were times when I would be sitting in the living room with the door open and look up to find the squirrel sitting on the deck rail looking in at me. We’ve also had birds sitting there looking in, and one of the neighborhood cats used to do the same thing.  There have been times when we were on the deck in the evening and seen raccoons meander along the driveway, and one time a bear came crashing through some bushes between us and the neighbor’s house.  Foxes used to fight outside my daughter’s bedroom window at night and she said the sound they make is awful not to mention frightening in the middle of the night.  There was the carpenter bee who acted as a sentry by hovering in your face as you approached the door and then flew away after a second or two, we’ve had the occasional praying mantis, and of course my arch nemesis icky Vicky the spider and her descendants.  Yes, nature is never boring.

               The weather is another aspect of nature that fascinates us.  We talk about it, have channels devoted to it, complain about it, and celebrate it.  It seems to defy explanation at times, like how it can be pouring rain from dark clouds at my house, yet I can see that just about a half mile away there is a beautiful sunset over the lake.  Rainbows are always amazing and social media lights up with pictures everyone takes of them after a big rainstorm.  Likewise if there is hail on a hot summer day you can see many videos and pictures in your newsfeed.  When it snows in places that usually don’t get it, or someplace gets snow measured in feet instead of inches it is newsworthy, as well as ice storms which are terrifyingly dangerous yet beautiful in the sun when they finish.  Who can resist a picture of fog as it lifts off a body of water, or a deep blue sky dotted with white puffy clouds highlighted by sunbeams? We can hear the rumble and roll of thunder in the summer or even in the winter during a snow storm. Weather and nature continually changes and keeps us on our toes.

               I find time spent contemplating my immediate outdoor surroundings to be a good way to take a little mental break from the stresses and worries of life.  Wondering how it is birds can fly, butterflies and bees know where flowers full of nectar are, and squirrels remember where they have buried acorns they collected months before can take you out of yourself for a few minutes.  You might never get the answer, but that’s not really what’s important.  What’s important is to get a little vacation for your brain, feel a part of something bigger, and find momentary peace.