Here are some thoughts about nature that came to me after working in my front yard gardens today. After a terrible storm or wildfire nature heals itself, if humans allow it to be so. Nature is forgiving, even if humans makes the same mistake over and over again on Nature. Humans mistreat nature and pay for it by events like the great flood in New Orleans a few years back. Nature is adaptable to an extreme point but can be broken after extreme misuse. Nature had mastery over humans, now humans seem to have mastery over Nature. Humans cannot create Nature but certainly can destroy it.

There is a picture quote by Joseph Campbell that sums up some of these thoughts: “The goal of life is to make your heartbeat to match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.” I think the world would be a better place if would match our nature with Nature.

Protesting outside a gun shop today a passerby was arguing with us saying it is human nature to be violent and thus we needed guns to protect ourselves against other humans. This would be somewhat true if human nature was the same as the nature of animals. But it is not. We have self consciousness and awareness and do not just operate with our instincts. When someone attacks us or someone we love we naturally defend ourselves or our loved ones. If we have a gun and work on basic instincts, we probably would just shoot the attacking person. However, if the threat is not serious and we are aware of the situation there may be many ways to stop the violence. In fact, as Mahatma Gandhi says “Violence always thrives on counter violence.”

The same, I discovered, could be said about violent words toward a person. If the person reacts to violent words with violent words it just feeds the violence and results in more violence.

When nature suffers violence, like after a storm or fire, it does react with counter violence. Nature naturally seeks to heal itself. We can learn from nature that when we suffer violence of words or actions to be like nature and heal oneself.

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