NATURE AND YOU

"What is this life, if full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare"

W.H. Davies

As a child I was fascinated by nature, and in particular creepy crawlies and brown bugs.  I could spend hours watching a hedge which in the spring time of those days would be full of caterpillars munching their way through the leaves and preparing to turn into butterflies.

Sometimes I would pick a leafy twig with a caterpillar on and put it in a jar with air holes pierced in the lid so that I could watch the progress over the week or so that it took for the caterpillar to turn into a chrysalis and then hatch out into a butterfly.  As soon as it hatched I would take it back to the hedge and let it go.

Another pastime that we enjoyed as children would be to take a jam jar with a string handle to the stream at the bottom of the field by our house and fill it up with stream water.  The jar would be full of shrimps and other tiny water dwellers. If we were very lucky we would find a frog and capture it for a few minutes to inspect it.  After we had watched the creatures doing their thing for a while we would tip them back into the stream and they would carry on unharmed and none the wiser.

Nature is so wonderful, it carries on regardless.  Every year the seasons come and go, and despite changes in environment and climate, nature continues to function.  The flowers bloom, the fruit grows, the birds eat it, spread the seeds and the plant grows. 

Sticking to a regime or routine is a great way to live, I was recently talking to my sister about how our parents lived.  They got up at the same time, ate their meals at the same time and went to bed at the same time each day and they fitted everything else in around their routine.

It made them appear rigid and inflexible but they did not suffer, as we do, from anxiety or stress.  They kept going, doing what they did and enjoyed themselves along the way.

Maybe there is something in that.  Perhaps, because we have all got so modern and have every labour saving gadget and smart technology designed to improve life, we have forgotten how to just be who we are for a few moments.

You are part of the natural world and that means you have to survive in a way that suits you best, but you are also here to enjoy yourself.  Part of surviving physically is working to put food on the table and a roof over your head but enjoyment helps you to survive emotionally. 

Whatever it is that you really enjoy doing is a very important part of your life.  Can you arrange it so that you have time to give to what you love doing. 

You might find the calm and peace that is demonstrated by nature and my parents’ generation.