Find hope in the rhythms of nature... Simple Suggestion #12 of 100

One of the things I love about living this far north is the light in the skies at day's end this time of year. I'm still a ways from the land of the midnight sun, but this morning the sun rose at 5:18 a.m., and it will set at 9:44 p.m. It only seems right because our winters have so little daylight.

One of the things I love about nature is that a lot of the time, it balances out. Light and darkness, sun and rain, cold and warmth, growth and decay. It's just when people tamper with the way nature does things that life gets really messy. I always find it interesting how, when something goes wrong (for example, this week's Joplin tornado) that it's entirely nature's fault and has nothing to do with Global Climate Change caused by human beings. I heard an interview with a meteorologist this week, and she claimed that the severity of this year's tornados is in keeping with every other year, but meteorological records only go back sixty years so we can't talk about these storms in terms of Climate Change. Doesn't she realize that our glaciers have been melting ever since the late 1800s, and that such things might be connected to an increase in the severity of storms? It drives me crazy when scientists miss the fact that everything is interconnected because they're so intent on studying only their particular field.

But I'm not going to get snarled up in depression today. Nature is having struggles everywhere, to be sure, but her rhythms continue, especially where people cooperate with her natural processes. And more and more of us are waking up to and participating in what cultural historian Thomas Berry called the Ecozoic Era. We are returning to intimacy with our earth, trying our best to live in harmony with nature. Rather than thwarting those things that happen naturally, we are beginning to embrace them and work with them, seeing ways to live in mutually beneficial relationships.

All it takes is a change in mindset. It would be easy to complain about this fourth rainy day in a row, but I know that rain is part of nature's rhythm. True, I can't get out and work in the garden... but I have a day to clean my house, organize my life, and catch up with myself after having neglected indoor living for a time. Nature is good, and it all balances out if I can go with the flow.

P.S. Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Try here.