Nature and Places

I have always become easily attached to wild spaces. There is something that resonates within me when I am surrounded by nature. When I am surrounded by nature, I find I gain a better perspective on life. I become more real, and at the same time, feel my own smallness within the vast universe.

Here is a photo I took last summer, of a log island in a lake that I like to call "Gaia".  On the log there is an abundance of life growing--mosses, lichen, grasses and more. This tiny log has become a home to a vast array of life.

Maybe your are not familiar with the term Gaia. I first encountered it when reading the science fiction of Isaac Asimov. It's a strange place to find an idea that strikes a deep chord of familiar inner truth, I'll admit, but there you have it. Gaia refers to the idea that the earth is one large system, or organism, of which all things of and upon it are a part. Since we (all life) are obviously all interconnected and cannot survive without each other, it isn't a very far stretch of the imagination to see how this would work. Don't buy it? Without plants, we cannot eat. Even purely carnivorous people rely on plants that their food (cows, pigs, rabbits, goats, chickens etc.) requires. Take a look at any food chain to get a better picture of this. And food chains do not tend to exist in isolation from each other, hence the term "food web" that has become increasingly popular.

Then there is waste. Even the most toxic substances we can create will eventually return to the earth in a benign state, given enough time (even nuclear waste will, given a sufficient, albeit extremely long time). If it came from the earth, it belongs to the earth and the earth will recycle it. The earth is quite efficient at doing this--from the water cycle, to the life/death cycle of plants and animals to geology. The surface of the earth is at varying ages depending on where you are, when the most recent volcanic or seismic activity was etc. Land is recycled just as water and life are.

Whether you take it literally or metaphorically, it is an interesting idea, and one worth considering in the larger context. After all, we are all in this together.