Blue Sky Preserve, Jerry Schadd
My back is stooped from scholarship,
My eyes are dimmed by history’s words.
Surrounded though I may be by learning,
I still cannot compare with nature’s perfection.Learning is a passion shared by many of us. There is a great allure to education and a fascination with the accomplishments of civilization. We go to libraries and museums. We go to exhibits showing the diggings from royal tombs. We are enchanted with new inventions. And yet, if we look out our windows and see a tree in its perfection, or gaze into a tide pool, or watch a cat as it strolls its territory, or see the flash of a blue jay, we can see another order of beauty and intelligence in this life.
The works of humanity cannot compare to the works of nature. The works of civilization lack the balance and refinement of nature. Too many times, our accomplishments are tainted by impure motives : profit, hardship, desire for fame, simple greed. We achieve, but we cannot foresee the results because we are unable to place our actions into a greater context.
Nature is a conglomeration of contending forces, of tooth and claw, venom and perfume, mud and excrement, eggs and bones, lightning and lava. It seems chaotic. It seems terrible. And yet, for all its unfathomable workings, it far surpasses the business of our society.
Think about what you do. How much of it can compare to the perfection of nature?
“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”
— Albert Einstein
“In nature we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it and over it.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they’re still beautiful.” — Alice Walker
“To the dull mind nature is leaden. To the illumined mind the whole world burns and sparkles with light.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.” — Joseph Campbell
Our morning walk with the dogs today was out to Blue Sky Preserve. Walking among the beautiful old oaks is a really pleasant way to spend the morning and admire the beauty of nature. It was assuming to watch some people cut themselves off still from the nature they were supposedly enjoying, with headphones, cell phones, running quickly instead of enjoying a stroll through the old oaks, or loud chatter to their walking partners instead of simply enjoying what was around them.
I wonder sometimes if people even know there is nature to be enjoyed. It seems they are often so wrapped up in themselves they forget there even is anything else. Why is it so hard to just enjoy the world as it is, instead of trying so hard to make ourselves and what is around us something more?
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