Nature As Our Teacher

I count myself very fortunate and proud to tell you that I was raised on a farm in the Midwest.  Because my brother and sister were much older than I, I was alone while they went to school, my daddy in the field and my mother in the house.  I would spend hours upon hours in nature.  In the summers, I was barefoot all summer long.  I have vivid memories of spending time spawled  out on the ground on my belly watching the ants. Sitting under the lilacs observing the spiders spinning their webs and picking berries and climbing trees.  There was no sense of time and no worries, the earth told me what to do if I listened and watched.




I explored in the safety of our small farm and I gained knowledge.  This knowledge is something that can only be learned by being in nature.  I learned to use the largest organ in our body, the skin, to soak up the information that is everywhere in the air, the sun, the moon, the water and wind.  My spirit totally understood.  The sounds that I call true music; the birds,wind in the trees and grass, the water sweeping over rocks on a journey to places unknown and insects busy keeping balance of it all...this knowledge is a part of my body and yours waiting to be awakened.

On top of mountains, as everywhere to hopeful souls,

it is always morning.

Many go fishing all their lives without knowing

that it is not fish they after.

Henry David Thoreau