LIFE LESSONS FROM NATURE

2017 0827 35  Life Lessons from Nature

LIFE LESSONS TAUGHT BY NATURE: DAVE URSILLO

Although we can discover life lessons through infinite avenues — in texts, movies, the workplace, in our relationships and so much more — we can learn amazingly valuable life lessons from nature, especially when we observe the characteristics of flowers.

EMBRACE THE SUN (FOCUS ON THE GOOD) Flowers grow towards the sun. They embrace the light that shines, which they depend upon for life. As human beings, we too must focus on the light. The light of human life is not physical brightness and sunshine, but the light that constitutes illuminated virtues of goodness, generosity, happiness, moral integrity and good will.

We must always focus on the positive and good. Life is difficult and, at many times and in many instances, certainly dark and depressing. But without the darkness there could never be light. Like flowers, we must always embrace the sun and focus upon the good, in spite of the darkness that we are sure to endure.

Human emotion and feeling are genuinely contagious. As human beings, our mental and emotional well-being is influenced by the happiness or sadness of others around us. As flowers embrace the sun, the lesson taught to us by nature is to always be reminded of, to reflect upon, and to cherish the light that shines in our lives. Without this integral focus on all that is good and positive in life, our own happiness wanes and we cannot aptly be a source of light for others; those who suffer in darkness and long to grow towards the sun.

BE THE WARMTH (NURTURE YOUR COMPASSION): Flowers need warmth to awaken from the winter’s frost, to sprout and to grow to their fullest potential. Human beings likewise need the warmth of human compassion, kindness and understanding to develop into their fullest, happiest and most balanced states of being. Right from our birth, the compassion that is embodied by our mothers and fathers is required for our very survival: without parents to protect us and provide for us, human babies cannot survive.

Compassion nurtures human happiness; it isn’t an emotional “bonus” that, if we’re lucky, we might experience in our relationships — immediately from birth, compassion is an absolute necessity for our very survival. As flowers need the warmth to grow, develop, and become whole, nature likewise teaches us that nurturing the warmth of compassion is an unmistakable, irreplaceable element of personal happiness, healthiness and lasting relationships.

OPEN UP [NO MATTER WHAT’S INSIDE]  Flowers bloom regardless of the looks of their faces, no matter their true colors. Although the faces that flowers display are physical and visual only, every human being owes it to oneself to open up and fully embrace one’s uniqueness — to accept, appreciate, and maximize who you are on the inside.

Every person is completely unique, both in physical appearance and in personality. In order to live the happiest, healthiest and fullest of lives, we owe it to ourselves to fully explore who we are: our interests, our passions, our fears, our strengths, and our weaknesses. Through opening up — no matter what is on the inside — we can learn a vast amount about ourselves. By maximizing our strengths, minimizing our weaknesses, and finally harnessing our interests and passions, we give ourselves the greatest opportunity to be happy, balanced, and fulfilled in life. Doing so also allows us to provide happiness and balance to the men and women around us whom we care about.

GROW TALL (IN SPITE OF THE FALL)  Flowers grow to their highest height, in spite of the fact that come winter, they shall wither and die. Flowers grow, live, and thrive regardless of their finiteness; their mortality. No different, we as human beings will all encounter the inevitable.

In our society, so much about our lives surrounds pursuits: pursuing dreams and goals, pursuing careers, pursuing a soul mate and the perfect relationship, pursuing a family, and so on. The pursuit-oriented nature of our lives places so much focus on the end goal — the objective, the sought-after achievement of our pursuits. But what about the pursuit itself?

Each flower has a purpose. In spite of the inevitability of their demise, they live because they can. In our lives, there are many passions and interests and noble objectives to pursue. As we seek out different achievements and successes, we must always remember that we live because we both have purpose and because we can. Grow strong and stand tall. Become the best “you” that you can be. Embrace the life lessons that nature provides us: bloom into your fullest and most vibrant of colors.

YouTube Video: Lessons from Nature: Elvis Newman: [Click Here] 2:45 min

YouTube Video: What man can learn from Nature: Alan Watts: [Click Here]

JOY OF NATURE: HOW TO LOOK AT NATURE

2017 0820 34  Joy of Nature: How to look at Nature

Allow the scene before you to take its effect -- savor its special character. And put aside for a while whatever is on your mind.

We all know people who are very much at home with nature, who seem to fall in with its rhythms as soon as they set foot outdoors. All of us can be like this -- capable of shedding the concerns of the workaday world. What it takes it concentration and practice.

When a beautiful vista stretches before us, what is there to interfere with the pleasure of its color and contour? Nothing, really, except our own unfamiliarity. We may feel a sense of wonder tinged with awe, and perhaps a sense of regret at spending so little of time doing this very thing.

Nature is not remote -- limited to parks and wilderness areas. It is abundant and readily available, as close as your own backyard. Nature is a year-round source of inspiration.

Think of the light that filters through the new leaves in spring, and the pungent smells of autumn. If your are dressed for it, a walk in the teeming rain can be strangely satisfying; perhaps it is return to the feeling of joy you had as a child, splashing through puddles.

A walk through a snow-covered woodland, where you are alone with the sound of the wind and the crunching of your own footsteps, may be a very personal pleasure. Such simple things extend your sense of the pervasiveness of nature.

There is infinite pleasure to be had in understanding the land and waters and the sky around you!

What is written above is all from "Reader's Digest JOY OF NATURE  How to observe and appreciate the great outdoors" [1977], such a wonderful book!  Just look at the ten attractive chapter headings: 1. How to Look at Nature  2. Trees and Forests  3. Mountains and Highlands  4. Sea and Shore  5. Grasslands and Meadows  6. Lakes and Rivers  7. Deserts and Arid Lands  8. Weather and Astronomy  9 Geology and Earth History and 10. Participation is the Key to Enjoyment, how revealing!  

I bought my copy of this great book along with "Reader's Digest THE COUNTRYSIDE DETECTIVE How to discover, observe and enjoy Briton's Wild Life" from Folsom CA GOODWILL Store in Jan 2007 for just $5! This store is the best among the many GOODWILL STORES that I have visited in the USA, especially in organization and classified collections of books on sale.  Don't miss making a visit to the place, if you get an opportunity!

NATURE: RALPH WALDO EMERSON

2017 0813 33  Nature: Ralph Waldo Emerson

NATURE

The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence. Nature never wears a mean appearance. Neither does the wisest man extort her secret, and lose his curiosity by finding out all her perfection. Nature never became a toy to a wise spirit. 

The flowers, the animals, the mountains, reflected the wisdom of his best hour, as much as they had delighted the simplicity of his childhood. When we speak of nature in this manner, we have a distinct but most poetical sense in the mind. We mean the integrity of impression made by manifold natural objects. It is this which distinguishes the stick of timber of the wood-cutter, from the tree of the poet. There is a property in the horizon which no man has but he whose eye can integrate all the parts, that is, the poet. 

To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood. His intercourse with heaven and earth, becomes part of his daily food.

In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows. Nature says, — he is my creature, he shall be glad with me. In the woods, is perpetual youth. Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years. In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, — no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair. 

Standing on the bare ground, — my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, — all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God. The name of the nearest friend sounds then foreign and accidental: to be brothers, to be acquaintances, — master or servant, is then a trifle and a disturbance. 

In the tranquil landscape, and especially in the distant line of the horizon, man beholds somewhat as beautiful as his own nature. The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister, is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me, and I to them. 

The waving of the boughs in the storm, is new to me and old. It takes me by surprise, and yet is not unknown. Its effect is like that of a higher thought or a better emotion coming over me, when I deemed I was thinking justly or doing right. Yet it is certain that the power to produce this delight, does not reside in nature, but in man, or in a harmony of both. It is necessary to use these pleasures with great temperance. 

Previous Post on NATURE by Emerson: Sunday, 11 September 2016

YouTube Video: Nature by Ralph Wado Emerson Video Book: [Click Here]

NATURE: IMPORTANCE OF NATURE IN OUR LIFE

2017 0806 32  Nature: Importance of Nature in Our Life

Nature is our best friend which provides us all the resources to live here. It gives us water to drink, pure air to breathe, food to eat, land to stay, animals, plants for our other uses, etc. for our betterment. 

We should fully enjoy the nature without disturbing its ecological balance. Nature includes everything around us like plants, animals, rivers, forests, rain, lakes, birds, sea, thunder, sun, moon, atmosphere, mountains, deserts, etc. 

If we want to be happy and healthy always we should try our best to save our planet and its beautiful nature by stopping our foolish and selfish activities. In order to keep ecosystem in balance we should not cut trees, forests, practice energy and water conservation and the like. 

Yet we have so disconnected ourselves from the natural world that it is easy—and often convenient—to forget that nature remains as giving as ever, even as it vanishes bit-by-bit.

The rise of technology and industry may have distanced us superficially from nature, but it has not changed our reliance on the natural world: most of what we use and consume on a daily basis remains the product of multitudes of interactions within nature, and many of those interactions are imperiled.

Beyond such physical goods, the natural world provides less tangible, but just as important, gifts in terms of beauty, art, and spirituality.

We depend entirely on a healthy natural environment for our wealth and wellbeing. It is fundamental to our economy and social structures, our homes and neighbourhoods, our ability to create and construct things, and to our health and happiness. Human beings are part of the natural world; we are one species amongst millions and have evolved to be part of nature, not apart from it.

We know that the natural environment provides us with a wide range of ‘ecosystem services’: all the things that people need and want that come from the natural world of which human beings are a part.

We receive provisioning services (food, fibre, energy, drinking water, building materials, natural medicine). We get regulating services (pollination, waste breakdown, regulation of flood, drought and local climate, control of pests, disease and pollution). And we get cultural services (meaningful places, access and recreation, tourism, creative inspiration and spiritual enrichment). 

At its foundations, there are several ‘supporting services’ that underpin and enable all the others: water and mineral cycling, energy flow, and ecological interactions such as food webs, species distribution, vegetation structure, soil and water. Not to mention other services that we are yet to discover.

The living part of the natural world – the wild plants, animals and fungi with which human beings share the Earth; the wildlife – is a vital part of the whole. All the other services depend on it.

Different people recognise the value of the many things that the natural world provides to us in different ways:

Some recognise that nature and wildlife have intrinsic value... They are valuable in their own right and we have a moral responsibility to look after them, irrespective of any benefit humans might get from them.

Many draw emotional value from nature and wildlife. Seeing it, or even just knowing it is there, makes us feel good. We enjoy it.

Unquestionably, nature provides goods and services to us that are of practical value to us and to the rest of society. Food production, flood control and improved physical and mental health and wellbeing all have practical, societal value.

Nature matters because it is priceless... It is great; we love it... It is useful; our wellbeing depends on it... And it is productive; it creates monetary wealth. And these basic messages lie behind what we are trying to communicate.

• 
  

YouTube Video: Importance of Nature in Our Life: [Click Here]