Understanding Nature
Our intention is to awaken respect for nature for its own sake, due to its vital importance and the gratitude we owe it in every sense, from our physical survival to the exceptional messages of wisdom it gives us at every moment.
Nature is not just an “environment”, a setting from which we extract elements that are necessary for our existence. It is a living being, a grand being whose infinity and diversity are difficult to comprehend, encompassing countless forms of life, among which we cannot exclude humans. It is impossible to respect nature while thinking that we and other living beings are a “special case”, that nature is one thing and we are something else. Or, as is customary, including rocks, plants, and animals in it, but what about the countless multitude of celestial worlds?
Where is our ability to learn from living nature today? On the other hand, how can we learn from it if we do not consider ourselves a part of it? How can we connect with something that is strange to us? How to understand
What lesson about unity does it offer us if we first place ourselves outside of that unity?
Nature is truly full of precious examples, but we need to immerse ourselves in it and read from it what it offers us, regardless of the books we have. In many occasions, our soul needs this different reading, in silence, simply, when words are unnecessary, and ideas emerge. When we establish contact with nature, a miracle happens: words are missing, and ideas, old and new, gush forth, igniting in the heart of those who feel that, despite all the changes in the world, on the Earth that is our abode, nature has been and always will be.
Mountains and stones speak to us
I don’t want to describe the magnificence of mountains, those inaccessible and bare ones that take our breath away with their height, and those that touch us with the greenery of their trees… They constantly speak their language of stability and endurance, because they know how to exist and persist.
However, there is also a small pebble that draws our attention on the shore of the sea, glistening with moisture. aging and the shine of the Sun. We usually take it and store it, confident that we have brought wealth of colors and shine, until one evening we find it in a forgotten bag and see only a lifeless stone without any charm. Let’s not throw it away because that is the lesson! Let’s take it back to the sea, expose it to the rays of the Sun and the miracle of its beauty will appear again. Couldn’t we perhaps do the same as the stone? Couldn’t we renew our beauty, our ethics and aesthetics if we knew how to connect with that which will ignite our light instead of it vanishing in the shadow of ignorance?
The tree and the daisy speak to us
Every plant tells us something about its history, its way of existence, from the small and seemingly insignificant one, hidden among rocks or nestled in a crack, to the magnificent tree whose branches are full of leaves and fruits. We need to know how to communicate with them: the tree will tell us about its sense of duty, its joy of adapting to the seasons and It will allow us to see that life continues despite changes. The plant will teach us about perseverance in fulfilling its purpose wherever it is destined to grow. Neither the tree nor the tiny blade of grass cease to hold onto the ground, nor do they stop reaching for the sky.
The sea and the wind tell us. What can be said about the sea? It is vast and powerful, calm and terrifying, but it obeys the wind and recognizes its voice that prompts it to roar or to calm down.
The sea is not capricious, but there is a law that eludes our understanding.
Do we also recognize the voice of the wind and its instructions, or do we just follow the chaotic movement of the wind of our emotions that knows no other rule than selfish gratification? What is the difference between one wind and another? The wind in nature, strong or gentle, always has a rhythm. Let us observe the orderly sequence of waves, no matter how enormous they may be; they forcefully reach the shore where they submit to the land or rock and scatter into foam. But they arrive in rhythm, In order, creating a unique poem.
The Animals Speak to Us
About animals and what they can teach us, we could fill more than these few pages. Some escape our knowledge or seem too wild for us to try to approach them. Some have become our friends and have learned to share life with us, eager to understand how we feel and capture our attention. Do we know how to return the generosity and care that domestic animals give us? Or are we satisfied with feeling “superior”? There are animals that look at their masters like gods and adore them. They can be capricious at times, but they rarely waver in their loyalty.
Today I saw a black cat with yellow eyes sunbathing motionless on a rock. I walked past him, poorly imitating his meow. He looked at me and immediately responded. That didn’t happen with the storekeeper when I was buying groceries…
The Sky and Stars Speak to Us
The sky clears every morning with that magic blue color that seems to stretch into eternity. The stars shine like diamonds, decorating the darkness of the night with their brilliant glow. They whisper secrets and tales of distant galaxies, inviting us to dream and explore the wonders of the universe. Do we take the time to look up, to appreciate the beauty above us? Or are we too distracted by our own little worlds to notice the celestial symphony playing above?
The home that always surprises us anew at sunrise… Or that sky with a thousand shades of purple in the evening when the sun sets… Or the night sky, with or without the moon, with or without clouds, full of stars that all, each in their place, dance that universal dance that we intuitively sense, without understanding.
The night sky most resembles our inner life: the absence of the sun forces us to seek out another brightness, other lights within our own depths in order to find our own stars, because we usually consider the sun as the energy that sustains us.
The stars give us perspective: we are neither big nor small. We are like them, so depending on who is looking at us, they see us in one way or another.
Nevertheless, the stars speak to us of infinity and open our souls so that we may expand our abilities… And I wonder how many more stars there are where beings live just like us, waiting to fulfill their purpose.
We have already seen that it is not difficult to read from nature when it is itself. A man is a part of this book, when we write a few lines or leave a dot of light in the sky with our own lives.
Natural disasters
In the past few years, to the misfortune of humanity, there have been abundance of all kinds of disasters: tornadoes, hurricanes, cyclones, thunderstorms, floods, volcanic eruptions, stormy winds…
An immediate question arises: why, why does this happen, and specifically where it causes the most damage?
Let’s not think that these phenomena are the result of only this epoch. They have always existed, although we haven’t preserved all the memories of them. Moreover, ancient disasters are now mixed with myths. But haven’t terrible catastrophes marked the transition from one period to another in the long history of our planet? Is there something in the remnants of stories about ancient continents like Lemuria and Atlantis, that were supposedly swallowed by fire and water? How do we explain sudden glaciations that seemingly caught unprepared humans and animals, some of whom were never seen again?
What happened to the other frozen plants while they were digesting the recently swallowed plants? What happened to so many species of plants and animals that disappeared in an instant? What about the cities that barely left any traces, often even less than that, except in stories about those times? Human egocentrism sees today’s problem as the only and biggest one, but it’s not like that.