Nature: The Cycle of Eternity

Humans have abandoned the calling of nature and have ceased to listen to the gentle whispers of the world around us. We constantly invade it with our concrete jungles and mar its beauty with grotesque symbols of modernization. We have lost more than mystical jungles and rolling hills. Teachers, as the architects of tomorrow’s minds, are perhaps the most unfortunate because they have abandoned nature with its wellspring of ideas and the cycle of eternity that used to succor young minds.

We have ceased to follow our natural instincts that paved a path from the crude cave dwellings to the skyscrapers we now rein from. We relentlessly pursue materialistic ambitions and pleasures ignoring our need to revive our energy. We fail to imitate nature that arises in spring to plant for the vigor of summer before utilizing autumn to offer the last bounties of succor only to succumb to the slumber of winter.

We have lost our ability to process loss, a blessing we have ignored in favor of acquiring more possessions that will not sooth our injuries. The trees shed their golden green foliage to become bare reminiscent of their former glory. Trees know how to strip off their past triumphs to undergo a metamorphism that strips them from all semblance of beauty. Yet they gently succumb to this upheaval because they know it is necessary for the cycle of life. Even their discarded foliage will go into the ground to fertilize it. They realize that come spring, they will rebuild what has been stripped and emerge victorious having defeated the odds.

It seems our confusion has also managed to limit our potential as we strive for labels and roles that give us a false sense of security. We ignore our true calling just to mold ourselves into an unnatural amalgamation of what society thinks we should be. We stop branching out into the ether and waste away all that could have been. And when we inevitably fail, a natural consequence of ignoring our inner self, we drift further outside our essence, forever unable to reach out to the false world around us and never capable of recapturing the Zephyr we could have been. Onward we tax ourselves more for failing to live up to unrealistic expectation and stifle any possibility for a brighter future.

Nature is fascinating in its grandeur. The universe is vast in its kaleidoscope of wonders from the smallest atom to its biggest galaxies. We conveniently forget that we are less than a blimp in the age of the universe, and our time is better spent contemplating the immense world around us instead of focusing on our comparatively shallow interests. Our comfort and modernization came about because

our ancestors strove every day to understand and imitate the wonders of the world. Had they followed our suit, we would still be dwelling dark caves.

These existential questions are not as unattainable as they might seem. They are part and parcel with who we are because we are a layer in the fabric of the universe. Our core oscillates with the rhythm of all the intricacies of every subatomic particle of every other being. All we need is to delve into what made us human and an integral part of the stratum of life. We need nature in all its beauty and ferocity to remind us of our tenacity and frailty at the same time. Only then will we tap into our ingenuity to forge forward tempered by being mindful of our limitations and obligations.