NATURE – AN INCREDIBLE CREATION

I just picked up a book I have had for a while on Mushrooms and the author writes about the bad rap mushrooms have gotten throughout time. A quote from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, by gone creator of Sherlock Holmes on his perception of nature and of the fungi:

…A sickly autumn shone upon the land. Wet and rotten leaves reeked and festered under the foul haze. The fields were spotted with monstrous fungi of a size and colour never matched before – scarlet and mauve and liver and black – it was as though the sick earth had burst into foul pustules. Mildew and lichen mottled the walls and with that filthy crop, death sprang also from the watersoaked earth.

Or that of the American poet Emily Dickinson:

Had nature any outcast face Could she a son condemn Had nature an Iscariot That mushroom – it is him.

Beauty is truly in the eyes of the beholder. In nature, many of us choose what deems beautiful or not. A mountain lake, cascading waterfalls, a tropical beach with palm trees swaying in the gentle breeze and the infinite expanse of the beautiful blue waters of the ocean. Or, a group of copper colored mushrooms on a rotting downed log, or as Doyle put it, “wet and rotten leaves reeked and festering under foul haze, or a grass hopper swaying back and forth on a single blade of grass.” For those who truly love nature, everything in nature is beautiful and worth the present moment in observation.

If we select and isolate from the all to what we only perceive as beautiful, we lose so much of what nature is. The wet and rotten leaves that reek and fester are the nutrients that gives trees and plants life. Looking into the looking glass of insects, opens up a whole new world of amazing creatures we can observe and learn from. Those slimy, biting, sucking creatures offers us many more pages in studying and knowing natures intricacies.

By looking deeply, and in silence at everything nature offers with awe and respect, our minds will gain a better understanding, love and respect for all living creation on our planet.

The next time you walk into the woods or in a nature setting, look beyond what you usually see and begin to look at what you have ignored in the past and walk gently on the ground beneath your feet.