We are doing a lot of outdoorsy stuff this week, together as a family. It’s a good way to be together and yet be on our own, all at the same time. My second son asked us why people are in such awe of nature. We all had different answers. I said that nothing man has made can compare to the beauty and magnificence of nature. My eldest son disagreed. (He has always loved cities. On his fifth birthday, I had his birthday cake designed to be a tall building.) My son said that we are animals, too. So when we were all oohing and awing over a beaver dam, that is why we also marvel over the Hoover dam. I thought that it was a good point he made.
My husband said that we are in awe of untouched, wild nature because it is not something most of us see and experience in our every day lives. We all wondered if the park rangers are still in awe of the natural wonders they experience as part of their daily lives, work and experience. I hope so. I hope that the park rangers can view their work environment every day, the same way the rest of us are taking it in – with wonder, with amazement, with the breath-taking awe of an ecology living in synchronicity and teeming with a mass diversity of beautiful versions of Life.
“If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive. ” – Eleonora Duse
My bestie’s youngest daughter is a ranger at Channel Islands State Park in Ventura, California. She is currently at training up in the Redwoods. I can confirm that she is in love with her job, and sees the beauty and wonder of nature every day. She sends video clips every day of moss, eagles, rocks artfully stacked by hikers, blue skies with clouds. I love that she loves it. We need people like her to safeguard the things we take for granted.
That is so inspiring! By the looks on most park rangers faces, I think most of them do love their jobs. We were white water rafting, and the guide would wave her hands around excitedly and say, “This is my office!”
Nature is powerful, isnt it. It certainly is for me.
We live at the Gateway to Yosemite. Funny how we rarely go. Ruts too have a powerful hold.
Its said one can drive around the corner to the highest point on one of our neighbouring streets and on a clear day see Yosemite. But yet it takes hours to get there. As a crow flies its hop, skip & a jump.
The drive is wondrous in itself. Steep, slow switchbacks. Rocks grow into boulders with the passing miles. Man its breathtaking!
We went to Yosemite last year, Kit. You are one lucky person!! It is so beautiful. You are right, we take our own neighborhoods for granted. I rarely go to the beach, but when I do, I think to myself, why don’t I go every day? Lol