6:45 AM
I'm standing outside on an early spring morning.
As the sun rises over the mountains in the east, it finds a small break in the morning clouds, illuminating the mountains down the valley to the west.
No wind.
No traffic out here.
Just pure silence.
Then an elk is heard bugling from a nearby meadow and his call echoes throughout the valley.
A muskrat is spotted swimming in the lake as it creates a v-shaped wake.
Two Steller's Jays fly from tree to tree, occasionally dropping to the ground as they investigate everything on their morning rounds.
There is peace, contentment, and awe to be felt here in this valley at the break of day and miles from town.
I think about how sometimes nature seems violent and unforgiving, while other times it seems tranquil and beautiful.
And again I realize, we are not just polarized against one another, but against nature itself.
Sometimes it seems to me as if mankind believes that it lives outside the rules of nature. But maybe we just don't understand the rules.
If we see ourselves as something separate from nature, we won't be able to see how we are a part of it. Nature is not window dressing to our lives or just something pretty to look at.
It is a part of us.
And if we lose that connection, we lose an important part of ourselves.
Maybe we already have.
While our minds were being conditioned, was our inner nature neglected?
I wonder;
What if, while trying to dictate our own version of balance, we are fighting against nature's balance?
What if our attempt to control the world around us is precisely what's causing the problem?
What if we tried to adapt to nature rather than trying to impose our will on it?
But right now it's time to go into town and to face humanity.
Photo by Grant Krasner
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