Nature Is Being You And Me

Maybe the main reason I've always loved nature is that it's so genuine and authentic. That may seem like a strange statement but have you ever noticed that nature is just what it is? It's beautiful sometimes, stormy and violent at others. But always it just is.

Nature isn't trying to impress anyone. It has no pretenses. It doesn't try to impose anything on anyone or make something change. It's simply natural life happening, moment by moment. Where did it come from? What started it? Does it matter?

But nature isn't just the forests, the desert and the oceans. Life is nature. It just is and who knows why. Does it have a purpose? It appears not to need one. And where do we, as humans, fit into this scene? Clearly, we're also nature. We're not independent beings. Without some life force "we" don't exist. I was at the bedside when my late wife died, and later my dad. One moment there was life and the next moment no life. The same eyes were in those bodies but they could no longer see. Same body but no longer able to move. Even our language acknowledges that. After death we don't say, "Joan was moved." We say, "The body was moved." We know there's no "Joan" there.

But the fact is, there was never a "Joan" in that body. We assume because there's a body and thoughts that there's a person. But that's an idea we've made up. The body functions without a "me". So does the so-called mind. Thoughts appear all by themselves.

Clearly we're not separate from nature. Nature is being the trees in the forests, the rivers and ocean. And it's being a Joan or a Chuck as well. When we see that, we're home free. "We" have no control over life; it just happens. Like everything in life, we're being lived. Knowing that, we can just be -- not needing anything to change, not being upset because they should be different. Without our opinions, interpretations and judgments what's left? Just a quiet contentment with life as it is. It's called peace. That's our true nature.