Greenery: Why I Enjoy It

As I have grown older, I have felt more frequently drawn to the natural world than in my previous years. I suppose this is because it offers an escape from the constrained world that I experience. Nature is simply present. She harbors no expectations towards my success or failure. As C.S. Lewis once wrote, "Nature simply hearkens: Look, Listen, Attend!" This lack of expectation gives me a feeling of freedom. I know this is an illusion. In reality, I am bound, ironically, by the laws of Nature. If my wits do not allow me to survive, then I will die. More importantly, I am bound by God's law, as Nature is His Creation. So this freedom is not complete. But nonetheless, the lack of restraint which I feel when I am in Nature is an addicting sentiment, and despite the questionable nature of freedom itself, I seek this release from the "fetters of modern life" at frequent intervals.

I am attracted to beauty, as all people are, and nature provides that in abundance, which forms another draw for me. I don't simply refer to an aesthetic beauty. If that were my meaning, I would immediately be shot down by the sheer ugliness that shares the same space as the beauty. The deeper beauty of nature is in the pattern of predictable change, such as that of seasons. The beauty is found in birth and death in all its manifestations. All of nature is in a constant state of growth and decay. There is always change. Even the very plates composing the earth on which we stand is moving, albeit slowly enough that the total change will be less than a millimeter within a human lifetime. Bacteria, which are themselves a few orders of magnitude smaller than a millimeter, will travel much greater distances during their allotted time of existence.

Nature offers a multitude of pleasant sensory experiences. Let me note again the caveat that any biologist will not hesitate to offer a multitude of severely unpleasant sensory experiences to complement any list of the former. Personally, I love the smell of the air after a snow, the shock of a mountain lake or river when you dive in, the warm glow of a sunset in any environment, and the lushness of an evergreen forest. I enjoy a good fog, find the prospect of a downpour tantalizing, and find that this makes the warm light of the sun all the more pleasant.

Now, I don't live in Nature, which is evident by the fact that I am writing in a blog. But I clearly find many of my metaphors and analogies there, which is as it should be. What better way to help understand our existence than the very creation which God has given us? Yet again I must add that this is not the only tool that has been given us for understanding our existence, and the use of Nature alone as a tool for the interpretation of our existence has led, at best, to terrible mistakes in our past. But it is an interesting point that much of Nature's beauty is a result of change, much of which involves death and pain. It is the same way in human relationships. With great love comes great pain. We must die to ourselves to become ourselves. Now I don't want to seem trite by saying that the beauty of our relationship with God can only come with death and pain, but I am saying that. If it seems trite, then perhaps I should edit this later and say the same thing in a way that seems new. That's what all the genius authors do anyways. ;-)

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