Nature Connection: Finding Peace In Nature

The other day I was early for an appointment, so I stopped at a favorite beach and took a walk along the marsh trail behind the dunes. The day was bright and warm, full of fall colors. On the drive there I was filled with the sight of gorgeous red maples and orange-red tupelos all along the roadside. 

The sky was a bright cerulean blue with only a hint of a fluffy white cloud here and there and hundreds of blackbirds rested on the utility wires. Even if one had woken from a hundred year sleep, they would instantly know it was fall.

Gone were the ospreys and the thousands of swallows that had populated this marsh only a few short weeks ago. A few crows had a lot to say, and as I watched them frantically surround a tree top, I saw an adult bald eagle rise into the sky and slowly fly away. The crows followed for a bit but soon returned to chatter amongst themselves.

The baby diamondback terrapins have mostly hatched and settled into the marsh, but I found the tracks of one last little turtle as it hurried down a dune, across the sandy trail into the marsh. A few butterflies and bees remained, but mostly the flowers they depended on had gone to seed. A few asters still bloomed, and they were buzzing with activity.

On another day I took a walk in the woods where the mushrooms were popping up all over after the rain we had a while back. Here and there were berries from the viburnum and cat briar, rosa rugosa and bittersweet. A late catbird and a few robins were helping themselves to the berry buffet while a family of baby red squirrels chased each other around, chattering away like school children at recess.

Every season has its scents, but for me fall has some of the most intoxicating. The marsh smells salty and damp, rich and earthy. The woods smell piney and sharp, a bit musty and fruity. The beach itself smells of salt and sand and fish and seaweed, a smell Cape Codders inhale like perfume but which confuses, even distresses, many newcomers.

Walking outdoors with no distractions is good for our mental health, and these days I think we all need to preserve all the mental health we can. These are trying, even dangerous times in our human world. I can relate a lot of what is happening to the wild world of animals, but it doesn’t inspire much confidence, to be honest.

As we know, nature is not benevolent or malevolent, though she can sometimes appear to be both. Nature just is. She is constantly adapting, adjusting, and fine-tuning. There are days I think she must be so disappointed in her human experiment, but then I remember that to her we are no different than cockroaches or rats or elephants or whales. We are simply another species, here today, possibly gone tomorrow. She probably is saddened by our ability to mess our own nests and show such disregard for her, but like many mothers she probably figures we’ll either figure it out or not.

If you are fed up with the lying and cajoling and threats of fascism, you need to take a breath and vote for the environment. It’s simple. A vote for corporations and ongoing petrochemical production is a vote against the environment as well as sanity. You have a chance to make a difference this November, so use your voice and your vote. Clean air, clean water, safe food and shelter? These would seem to be in everyone’s best interest, not lining the pockets of wealthy old men who would like to rule the world as puppet masters.

Our environment is under extreme stress due to climate change, but also centuries of disregard for what should be obvious safeguards. We are in a period of mass extinction, and if we’re not careful, we could easily become a species of concern as well. We have been careless, money hungry, and disrespectful of our mother; and all over the world, we are paying the price. The climate migration is only just beginning. If people have an issue with immigration now, just wait until it really gets going.

As you are out walking this fall, please consider what our world will look like if the vote goes to business, not humanity or nature. Stand beneath a canopy of trees and listen to them whisper to the wind. Watch the waves come in and out at the beach and contemplate an empty seashell. Soon, we too, will be but skeletons, but we have a choice. Do we kill ourselves off or do we return to sanity and work together to build a safe and decent world for all? The latter is an enormous undertaking but well worth the price if survival is our goal. 

Walking outdoors is good for our health in so many ways, but perhaps its best offering is the chance to be alone with our thoughts, our appreciation of all the things freely given that we take for granted such as clean air, water, and food. It helps clear our minds and our hearts.

Vote for the trees and shrubs that shelter us, give us oxygen and food, wood and shelter. Vote for the birds and bees, the deer and rabbits. Together we form an amazing circle of life but to succeed it must be carefully maintained, not destroyed for profit.