Nature
Life’s magnificent, extraordinary presence.
On any given day, we are gifted by nature a feast fit for kings and queens to marvel upon. Everywhere around us there is stunning, profoundly intelligent life, habitation, and chemistry in near infinite variety to explore, immerse in, and learn from.
From the infinitesimally small view of quarks, protons, and neutrons, to cellular micro-environments and organelles, to organs, to organisms, to communities, to ecosystems, to planets, to solar systems, to galaxies — on and on to the largest scale of the universe at its edges as far as we have yet seen (if its edges even exist, or perhaps even multiple universes), and ultimately the cosmos in its unfathomable entirety to ponder upon. Therein, we humble humans, almost certainly still only in our adolescence, we too are apart of nature. Still finding our way.
Amongst my favorite words ever said by another are these below by the great Edward O. Wilson. I would have loved dearly to have spoken at great length with him about such a beautiful notion, and can only hope and imagine his intuition aligns with my own.
“A lifetime can be spent on a Magellanic voyage
around the base of a single tree.”
In my mind, herein lies two things. First, a childlike wonder of relentless quality; a presence fully alive to the vastness of reality all around us and one’s own experience within it, captured and recontextualized across time. Second, an antidote to the incessant draw upon our attention that is the infinite myriad of events unfolding in our world at once; a reprieve from the too-often capturing insatiable desire to be somewhere else than one already is.
In a way, to truly immerse in nature is to inoculate oneself, at least to a degree, against one of the great fears of our time — that of missing out. Circumventing the tragedy of absent-mindedly fumbling through this one precious life we are given. Naturally, this is not so easily achieved by us perennially distracted humans. Yet with work and intention, we can ground ourselves in this orientation with greater skill over time. As there is always this moment, and a sea of magnificence just a glimpse away, indeterminately just within reach.
Written for human readers. Not licensed for machine training.