The Sad Side of The Nature

Wren Nest
Learning about nature is not always a happy experience. To learn how nature works it is necessary to know it is a balance and there is death as well as life. Nature always finds a way to maintain this balance, although it might not be in a way we would like.

My daughter in law called crying about her bird house that was knocked over by the wind during a storm. The baby birds that it was housing had perished. I recently witnessed a baby wren die in my driveway after what I assume was from flying into something and sustaining an injury that it was not able to recover from. It was so heartbreaking. But in the same week I witnessed the wonder of 2 young hawks flying from their nest, found baby praying mantises while I was mulching, and watched countless other miracles of nature.

I believe these negative aspects of nature make the positives even more wondrous. For each example of sad nature experiences I can think of at least two happy ones. It can be very challenging to refrain from interfering with natures process when we sense it will have a negative outcome. Sometimes assistance can offset some of the human interference already in place such as helping a turtle that is on the side of the road. Other times our “helping out” can have consequences we can’t imagine. An example of this is stopping a predator from catching it’s prey. It may be difficult and go against our instincts to help a creature in need, but realize that the predator has it’s place in nature as well and keeping it from catching it’s prey could result in starvation. Without predators, the prey species would become overpopulated. This would result in devastation of food sources and starvation of the prey species. This is just a very small part of natures process but I hope it helps to paint the bigger picture.

Nature is a delicate balance that when interfered with can have consequences that are not intended. This being said, some simple acts can be helpful in overcoming other forms of human interference. It is important to be aware of this when becoming involved with or enjoying nature. In my experience the happy outweighs the sad and I hope when you become more aware of nature you will see this as well.

Does our society provide the optimum conditions for human growth and development?

Is each person afforded the appropriate conditions which will allow them to flourish… to become what they were always naturally inclined to become: an artist, a farmer, a carer, an entertainer, a thinker, a writer, a scientist, a mother, a teacher, an explorer?

Think back to when you were very young. What did you love to do back then? What were you really interested in? Maybe it’s so long ago you find it difficult to remember. Did you have a natural inclination towards something? Were you one of the lucky ones and did you always follow this interest throughout your life or did you stop for some reason? Was it suppressed? When did it become very important to “fit in” and please other people? When did you become pragmatic? When did safety become the most important thing? When did earning lots of money, owning material things and being “successful” become the dream? What is success? Were you ever empowered to follow your real dream or did it always seem unrealistic and unfeasible to do that? Were you ever asked what it is you would really like to do with your life? Have you ever considered these questions before?