Nature Inspite of City

 

 

 

 

"I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing

than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance."

 

E. E. Cummings

 

 

Growing up in a large city, there were birds and flowers, but one noticed them only in passing.  It wasn't until high school when I went on canoe trips portaging up into Canada that I began to sense the offering of nature.  I had always been highly connected to the outdoors, but when you live in the city and walk out of the apartment building, one goes some place.  One does not sit while life is zipping by, as there is no porch  with any one idling by. 

 

The apartment building did have a large yard and I loved to lie down on my back in the grass and stare up at the sky.  I would run barefooted and rest under the shade of the large old tree.  When I was high school age, I learned to ride buses to the lake to meet friends and become mesmerized by the water.  Each summer, canoeing in Canada, brought me closer to my love for trees and water ways.  There were so many trees, birds, flowers, berries, and bears, oh my!  These adventures nurtured me away from the city and to a small college town by the Mississippi. 

 

As years unfolded, life was divided in many ways.  There were pockets of time to teach my children respect for nature and to enjoy just being outside.  While vacationing in Wisconsin, offerings remained the same ... trees, water, and things that stirred in the woods.  My boys were fishermen, not hunters.  They fished from the pier  at the boathouse indulging their younger sister while I watched from my perch upon a very large boulder.  Sitting on top of this huge rock, I would read or write or watch the birds.  I will never forget the call of the loon.

 

In the evening, the boys would build a fire in the one hundred year old log cabin.  When it would grow too hot to stay inside, we would wander down to the fishing dock and watch the sky.  Frequently, there would be a meteor shower, discovery of configurations in the sky, and shooting stars.  As much as I enjoyed the excitement of the sky, I could never ask for one of the stars to fall.  I so loved watching them dance and I felt so humble in their magical presence.  If one fell from the sky, it was certainly a gift to be seen, but never requested.

 

There is an abundance of knowledge to be obtained from nature whether it is from land, water, or sky.  The messages are usually so subtle, but everlasting none the same.  My years growing up in the city taught me well, but the time with nature led me to the Divine.