Being with Nature

Though you are all well aware of this by now, I am from Colorado and I believe that being from an area where nature is cherished and a part of daily life makes a pretty big impact on how we see the world. I, for one, feel that my heart lies in the mountains of my home state and being away can only last so long before I go crazy with a lack of nature. I never feel more alive than when I am surrounded by natural beauty. I am not a religious person, but whenever someone asks me about my spirituality, this is the story I tell. The only time I have ever felt spiritual- a kind of overwhelming sense of peacefullness, oneness, beauty, and power- was when I hiked to the top of a "14er" (one of a cluster of tall mountains in Colorado) and finally turned around to see the mountain range behind me and hear the silence of the wind and the clouds. It was such an overwhelming feeling of a sort I had never felt before. I can still picture exactly how it looked and exactly how it felt- it was just that powerful. I get glimpses into that feeling everytime I am somewhere beautiful, so I am always seeking out this kind of beauty. I know I am an extreme example- I never feel fully content in a city and I know I belong in the mountains and I plan to get there. Feeling disconnected from nature, for me, is feeling disconnected from myself and all that is life. Because of how important nature is to me, it frightens me that we even ask the question as to whether or not nature should be saved. It shocked me when I began to travel outside of Colorado and realized that some people lived in cities all their lives and never felt moved to really experience nature, but I know this exists. Yet this disconnect has a bigger effect than just to shock me. This disconnect, I believe, is part of why we face this overwhelming environmental crisis. Nature should be saved and preserved- it must be for humans to continue to survive, let alone to be able to experience the kinds of spiritual benefits I believe nature provides. Ecosystems provide for humans too, not just the species that are going extinct. We need nature to survive and I believe we need nature to remind us what is important in life, something I think we've forgotten to ask ourselves. Sometimes only an overwhelmingly beautiful moment on the top of a mountain where all our petty human concerns are literally miles away can remind us just how important nature is and how much we have distanced ourselves from it.