Nature Can Teach

Nature is like an old school teacher, you remember the ones with the gray hair, half glasses that they peered over when they called on you? The ones that were so old that you wondered how they were still standing much less teaching.
Well, nature is the same.
Nature has so many different subjects that it can teach us if we are willing to learn.
I am most intrigued by snow because it is a natural substance that is manufactured in a manner that no one has really been able to explain. Its shape looks like something that could only be drawn on a draftsman’s table, it is light yet solid and supposedly no two exact flakes have ever been replicated.
I am most attracted to the color…white. Why white? Why not blue or some other color?
I recently drove through the Sierras in California and there is still some snow at the higher elevations and it was interesting to see the contrast of the white snow on the brown earth with green trees. It was beautiful and the snow which appeared to be the most fragile element present was the most dynamic in my memory.
The snow that I saw had never been walked on, that I could see, was brilliantly white in the midday sun and had such a pure elegance about it and there it was fighting off the ravages of the noonday sun in its intensity and it was winning.
There’s a lesson here, I think…that strength is not made in mass but rather cohesion. If the snow flakes decided to separate they would be gone in no time at all but they bonded and in the bonding do not allow the other elements to gain a foothold in their dominion.
Then there were the mountains and the cliffs and crags and the outcroppings and so many different contours and textures. Rocks hanging out into the open air with little holding them from crashing down into the valley and yet they remained. The different color formations and strata and each tells a tale of when they were made and the external pressures that were brought to bear to impact them in such a manner that we can study them years later. But it was the “holding on” that made the biggest impact on me because it was like a band of brothers holding on to the one going over the edge, willing them to remain and expending the energy necessary for it to happen.
There is a lesson here also, I think…that we are nothing without those around us constantly pushing and pulling, holding on, refusing to let go, willing us on, valuing us as a member of the team.
And then there were the trees with little that I can say that will add one scintilla to them that is not already theirs. The beautiful stand of trees for miles and miles were carpeting the earth with their majestic height and even more important the shade and protection that they provided for the creatures below. Out of all of the things I looked at the trees were the most fragile; the most endangered of being destroyed and with them the most important gift that they give to us…clean air.
There is a lesson here, that the strongest are not always that way and that we tend to take them for granted and cater less to their needs. We need to understand how each person strengthens us but at the same time we need to be aware of their needs and be willing to tend to them also.
So the great earth spoke to me that day about my relationships and how I need to respond to those around me but most of all the teacher asked me to ask myself one question…are you here to learn or are you just goofing off again?