Love of Nature

Monte Sano State Park

I live in a beautiful rich country with such variety of topography and wildlife.  I am writing from the humid lush green landscape of Alabama, and reading about the arid and hot spare landscape of Utah.  The writer of the book I am enjoying describes the canyons, the juniper trees, the rivers and the gorges that he floats on with such skill that I feel like I am there with him.  Then I put the book down and go for a chilly walk on one of our little mountains.  My husband and I walk through the mud on the trail, keep our hands in our pockets and follow the pathway to a bog area that once was a Monet style pond covered in lily pads.

I remember driving and camping west to east, starting in dry Montana. About midway across the country I remember the first day that I woke up in the tent, stepped outside and found wet dew on the ground.  I had forgotten about dew.  My shoes were wet, sitting outside, and my feet left damp footprints on the wet grass..  The air had that sticky feel to it that both moisturizes and suffocates.  I remember living in Georgia, and teaching my children how to make snowmen out of tiny slushes of snow.  We made a short little snow doll on top of our picnic table.  A few years later we moved to the very top of West Virginia and the kids got a real education on building proper snow men, sledding, skiing and shoveling snow.   My parents lived in Montana, where they saw snow sometimes from October to May of the next year.  Our last family vacation, for my 50^th birthday, we drove down to the Florida Keys, and I felt like we had entered tropical islands.  

We need to protect these beautiful diverse places.  We need clean water, clean air, and less plastic waste alongside the roadways.  We need to enjoy the landscape, get out of the cars and put our feet on the ground.  Walking along trails instead of rushing by we can see how wonderful the world is, hear the birds and feel the air.  When I fly across the country I don’t forget about the dew, but when we move slowly we get to recognize and observe all the variety of our land.  Sometimes we have to see and experience a place in order to care for it, to want to preserve it.  After all, this country is huge. Certainly there are many gorges, many rivers and streams, many prairies and bogs.  There is a lot of land.  But, we are a lot of people.  We consume space, pave roads and build shopping centers.  And we continue to do more of the same, tossing out our plastic bags, buying things we don’t need, and driving all over the nation snapping instagram shots of our National Parks.  

I believe when we take the time to get to know a space, to explore and hike, or photograph with intent, to read about and especially to just walk and breathe in a space, we will care more and perhaps fight for the space.  I have a friend that one time visited the Redwood trees in Northern California.  He told me the experience had changed him and he understood why these trees should be protected.  They are like a cathedral, but not made by man.  Sometimes we have to touch a place before it touches us, and once touched we know we have to protect.  So, go out and touch some nature today.