Our daily existence has become a constant and time driven matter of push and pull. So it’s no wonder we rarely, if ever, take time to think about where we fit in a world that was here long before the human race made an entrance.
Although most people will barely take time to say it doesn’t matter, the wisest among us see the good in allowing ourselves to pause long enough to let a few logical realities sink in. If you are one of them, then this is your chance.
For starters, understand that Mother Nature has been running the show for a very long time and shows no sign of letting up.
After all, the low-slung and forested slopes of the great Smoky Mountains once looked like the sky-piercing and snow-covered peaks of the Rockies. Eventually, however, the Rockies will look like the present Smokies — a happening no more startling than is the fact that most of America’s middle was once the bottom of an ancient sea.
With Mother Nature, no today is ever like any yesterday and neither will it be exactly like any tomorrow. Regardless of how fast or slow it happens, everything is a fit with something else so as to form an ever wondrous and forever different and evolving matrix.
It has been that way for millions of years — a parade of creating, changing, and rearranging. The shear immensity of it all casts a convincing shadow over any thoughts or beliefs that we can change any part of the everything that has always been within her power. She has her own ways of compensating and substituting no matter how much we agree or disagree.
From that evidence it’s easy to conclude that we are only visitors. As the host and housekeeper, Mother Nature expects our presence to cause some disruptive activity. At the same time, however, she insists on retaining the right, privilege, and responsibility of maintaining the world just as she always has. Yes, she will accommodate us, but our presence gives her no reason to change her normal ways.
When born, we arrive as eight pounds of wet, a body and brain without equal in the world, perhaps even the universe. Although durable and adaptable, we aren’t invincible. Some parts that break or wear out are repairable or replaceable, but eventually the entire system just quits. We might go to bed and never wake up, or suddenly collapse in a lifeless heap on a busy street corner. Either way and whether body or ashes, we return to Mother Nature’s bosom.
We need food, and Mother Nature provides it everywhere. Some is ready to be eaten raw but much is better cooked to create a variety of forms and flavors. It’s our choice to eat it on the run or at a well set table. Canning, freezing, and curing allow us to prolong the necessity or joy of eating. At the same time, it’s urgent we cooperate with Mother Nature in protecting our means of producing food and reducing the waste of what we harvest.
We need shelter, so we build houses — little ones, big ones, from closed spaces to open concept, wood and brick to metal and plastic. All of that is possible only because Mother Nature continues to provide the raw materials. No matter how new and colorful, every structure must be able to withstand the natural forces of heat, cold, and moisture. Yet, no structure is forever. Given enough time, Mother Nature makes sure all of what was needed for building is either reused or returned to again be a part of the earth.
We need clothes to cover us as we work and play, or wear when we wish to be admired. Whether tailored or baggy, all send a message as to what and who we are. We make and mix the synthetic with natural fibers to make cloth that stretches or drapes, pulls tight or hangs loose, dries fast or keeps its color longer. With every wearing and washing, however, the cloth becomes thinner as it gradually wears away.
Then there are all those machines, mechanical or electrical or a mix of both, created by us to make things, get us there and back, do faster and easier whatever needs to be done. Yet, even the most well designed and carefully built machines wear out, to be pushed aside and exposed to the destructive natural forces of rust and corrosion.
All assumptions, opinions, and beliefs aside, everything in this world including what we make and use, is temporary. None of us own anything, not even the ground we walk on.
We earthlings are simply renters, borrowers and users, guests of Mother Nature who allows us to come along for the ride.
