Nature (and its importance)

[Terminus]

Lately I've been thinking about how much I love the nature, and how important it is to me, and also about how detatched I feel from it.

If I go outside, as far as the eye can see are colorless buildings and apartment blocks, whatever growth has been placed out just doesn't feel... real. I don't have a car / driver's license so I can't really get out of the city easily. I almost avoid going outside simply becouse it makes me feel depressed more than anything else.

How do you feel about nature and what does it mean to you? What's it like where you live?

 

[Brian]

It's very naturey here in Priest River, Idaho. There's trees everywhere pretty much...some have been planted, but a lot of them are there naturally. Ten minutes out of town and you're in the sticks basically.

I have some pictures, but I'd have to resize them.


Nature is nice. In the summer it really greens up here and the river/lake levels rise. I really like to just sit out and fish in the afternoons and evenings and kick back...I bought a little boat for this year.

I used to work out in the woods, so I think I'm a little deadened to the 'specialness' of nature. I was out there when it was enjoyable, eating wild-grown raspberries and huckleberries, lounging under people's plum trees and eating those...but I was also out there when it was really hot or pissing rain. We didn't like those days. Nature can make things just as miserable as it can make things nice And then came winter and the snow, when you keep working to keep warm. To stop was to be cold, and it was always a hilight of the morning to finally get our first brush pile burning and get it stacked high and hot.

Nature here is also a resource, both in itself and in its effect on people. Thousands here depend in one way or another on the logging industry (there's a lot of progressive logging here as opposed to clear cuts). And in the winter, many of us -myself included- draw some income from the snow, because it has to be removed from driveways, roofs, and parking lots. I shovel roofs for side money, and my dad and I run a very small (few driveways and a parking lot) plowing operation. I LOVE plowing snow. I don't know why.

I think I like being out here more than in a city, overall. We lack a few things, and generally there's less money, but it's nice to hear nature even though you're 'in town', and it's great to be able to be out on the river or out in the woods without having to make a trip of it (though if you do make a trip of it, you'll definitely be rewarded).



It's also interesting to note, though, that being out here generally breeds youth to seemingly be more worthless. They're less educated, extremely promiscuous (except towards me of course ) with a high teen pregnancy rate, and more rough and tumble. Most guys around here don't really see past their next chance to go 4 wheeling or drive their money-hole pickup through the mud. Drinking is popular and DUI's are plentiful. I don't mind them getting DUIs, but I wish they'd go to jail longer...I hold drunk drivers with the same regard as murderers.

Anyway, that's getting a bit off topic.

 

[Lonesome Crow]

I live in an averge size town 35,000 ppl.
I've been more active lately...
sometimes I'll just take a drive out to the country and just
watch the sunset. I used to live out in the country..it was great.
There's a park near where I courrently live...it's sort of like a golf
park with hills, pond, ducks and a small water fall. I go there often.

I'm also fortunate my parents have a cool back yard.
We have a nice pool and it's surround be plants and flowers...like a little garden.
I spend a lot of my time in my back yard just chilling.

I've been able to drive into mountains and dessert within
the past couple of months...it's was good for me.

I used to get on my ninja and just ride into the mountains
almost everyday when i first got into reovery.
Long whinney roads were sweets.
Nature helped me healed so, so much.
I can sit no top of a summit all day or just hike on the trails.
Or run out to into an open field near a lake and just sit there for hours.
It's very, very peaceful. It drove my ex-gf ..nutz

I lived in SD for a year...it almost drove me crazy after a while.
I was dependent on a friend for a ride....I missed the trees and
beaches living in the city. It was too loud and fast...fast..
People rushing around to get to nowhere.

Hopefully I'll make it out to the beaches this year..I used to
go at least twice a month during the summer.

Nature = peace and serenty to me.
Nature is a very big part of my spiritaulity.
I'm not a very religious person...I've attended church as child but
I couldn't find that peace of mind in church.
Nature demands nothing of me....no rigths or wrongs.
Nature accept me as I am...I only need to show up.
It was through nature that I found peace and I felt okay to me.
Nature also held life's wisdom...if I chose to see it.
For me...I was able to seperate reality from society through nature.
Nature is real...it is what it is.

 

[Unacceptance]

fresia trees, robot supremacy!

 

[DayvanCowboy]

Nature is really one of the last true forms of beauty that our earth can reward us for living here. While everybody takes it for granted and doesn't give a honeysuckle about it they would not be so harsh if they ever discovered some of the great things our planet has created for us.

I live in the suburbs, but it is located by a really big escarpment full of forest and trails to be able to walk around and spend time in harmony by yourself.

Even when I was young and wild. The group I used to hang out with would always just hang chill out in the big forest of my town. It was such a tranquil experience.

Like what you experience, when I go to town its nothing but grey and brown buildings. People with more frowns than smiles. Its different when I am back in my small city. People here have their fingers deep in the soil and seem to be more relaxed and calm.

 

[SophiaGrace]

I like nature, its pretty. I end up feeling sad though if I am alone and looking at it. Not sure why that is.

But I love being in nature if there's another person with me

 

[one lonely guy]

I hate the inner city, love nature.
I belong to several field naturalist clubs and hiking groups. Good for meeting like-minded people too. I highly recommend it.

If you don't have transportation, car pooling is an option, but many outings are within city limits too. Check it out.

In Ontario, we have the fabulous Bruce Trail on the Niagara Escarpment (running from Niagara to the Bruce Peninsula). Summers I try to get to BC where mountains, ocean and nature are abundant.

 

[flaneur]

Living where I do, I've never even seen a mountain or waterfall in real life. I associate the metropolis with anxiety, turbulence and an obsession with material things. It's as the original poster communicated: everything is artificial. Technology only gives the illusion of progress, as we are going backwards mentally/spiritually. I hope one day to reside in a peaceful place and be surrounded by nature.

 

[ajdass1]

Where I went to secondary school was in an area outside of K.L. that was still mostly virgin rainforest, called Seri Kembangan. I started there when I was 11. Over the next six years they slowly started cutting down all the trees. First it was reduced to an orange waste that was muddy when raining and arid, almost desert-like, when it was dry. Eventually they put up more and more buildings, first just the skeletons, and then finally rows and rows of identical concrete houses - in preparation for a supposed "population explosion." By the time I left you could hardly see rainforest anymore.

When I think of it now I get this ache in my chest, like I want to cry.

It's been 5 years since I left that school. Everytime I go back Malaysia is different. For one thing the weather has changed. It either used to be baking hot, with no respite from the sun, or it would be raining so heavily that umbrellas were basically useless. Now you get these weird overcast days... you get drizzle... it might not seem like much but it's very, very disquieting.

I feel like the most heinous crime is being committed and there's nothing I can do to stop it.

So yeah, that's how I feel about nature.

 

[Lonely in BC]

I like to visit other places but the mountains are always going to be home to me. It's so pure, clean, quiet- I'll never live in a city again.

The window is open and I hear the waterfall up the street, I can smell the freshness of the water.....

The Kid and I walked down to the dock- the lake was so still the tree clad mountain on the other side was in perfect reflection.

Words cannot describe this.

 

[Felix]

ohh I feel exactly like op. the very same toughts.

depressing going outside, looking out my window and see erect concrete all over the place...

that's one of the reasons i'm considering moving.

 

[Ak5]

I'd very much like to see some forest where I live. I tire of the constant traffic, single-family homes and stores that surround me.

 

[Ox Blood]

Stars. I'd like to be able to see the stars at night. Impossible in this neon-bright city.

 

[fox]

Very much I appreciate nature. Within it my mood is the best. Unfortunately, the place I live, there is not much nature.. but still pockets of it, here and there some survives, and that brings a bit of peace. I do enjoy what little remains.

What is ideal to me, is to live in a place full of nature... Far away from endless gray concrete.. A place with many trees, and fields of wildflowers, and natural lakes and streams. Some place I can see wildlife. Without so much "development" of humans(to me it is destruction).

 

[Okiedokes]

Oh goodness... sounds like you need to move someday where there's some nature. That is like being a candy lover and not able to eat it! I love nature... I gotta have the trees. I would never be able to live in a city where there was no trees here and there. I have lived in a few small cities and at the top of Michigan.. we're known for the nature and scenery. I don't live in the UP, (they have a lot of deer and probably more forests). Our city is expanding but there are forests and farms surrounding us.

 

[Christina Sarah]

Stars. I'd like to be able to see the stars at night. Impossible in this neon-bright city.

Come stay with me. Stargazing is a favorite pastime of mine. :3

You can see them really well where I live & I've always wanted someone to share them with.

 

[Oscillate_Wildly]

ohh I feel exactly like op. the very same toughts.

depressing going outside, looking out my window and see erect concrete all over the place...

that's one of the reasons i'm considering moving.

Have you ever tried looking for nature in the city? Do you have local parks? They're a haven for urban wildlife. Do you have a river that runs through your city? I live near a city that has a river that is tidal, a walk along this when the mud is exposed can mean seeing various wading birds.

Do you have any derelict areas? These can be a haven for certain types of birds, bugs and mammals. In post war Britain, many bombed out ruins provided excellent nesting sites for Black-Redstarts. Wild flowers and shrubs can shoot up anywhere. Especially non-native species. On my walk to work I see buddleia growing out of the side of run down building.

What about city landfills? These will be full of wildlife, from rats and foxes to various gulls.

Also don't forget to look up, many tall buildings can provide hunting posts for raptors and you might catch migrating birds flying over your city. I recently watched a kestrel hovering over the tiniest bit of waste land next to one of the busiest roads in the city.

Nature does exist in this vast concrete jungle, we just need to look for it!