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 by Edward O. Wilson. I would have loved to have heard his complete explanation for this poetic insight, and can only hope and imagine his vision 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, 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. 

In a way, to contemplate on this deeply is to inoculate oneself, at least to a degree, against one of the great fears of our time, that of missing out. Granted, 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.