A long time ago came a man on a track
Walking thirty miles with a sack on his back...

Nature has always held a deep fascination for me.  I have always enjoyed learning about and interacting with nature.  From turning my face up to the sun to feel it’s warm rays...to enjoying watching animals do what they do...to feeling and connecting with the ebb and flow of the natural rhythm of the world around me.  The natural world is truly an amazing life force.  The cycles of life that flow on around our busy human lives and yet are still intricately woven amongst them is amazing...but it really is a fine thread that sews us all together. 

To the busy, city human...the changes that occur naturally are pretty basic.  There is of course night and day, the four seasons and a full moon every now and again as their lives revolve around work and if it is warm enough to socialise out of doors or not.  Yes, they may enjoy spring with all its renewed glory (if they don’t suffer hayfever) and enjoy summer living (as long as it isn’t too hot) but how much do they really think about the cycle of life in the big wide world outside of their concrete jungle?

Life without human interaction has a unique ability to control itself.  Animals have an amazing inbuilt knowledge that coincides with the natural seasons of the year.  They automatically know the right time to breed, to stock up on food, when to move and when to stay.  When to hibernate and when to wake up.  They also know which foods they need to eat and which ones they need to avoid.  They know how to seek out water and the warning signs of the food and water they need to stay away from.  And for anyone who has witnessed the amazing sight of an animal giving birth for the first time, the fact that they instinctively know what to do and how to do it...is truly a sight to behold.  Whether humans ever knew that ability or not, it is very hard to say.  Over the past couple of thousand years we humans have given into listening to others - “the experts” - instead of listening to ourselves and our surroundings and we have lost most of that natural instinct that we would have had thousands of years ago...but that animals still have intact.

The biggest difference between the natural world and humans I believe is emotional.  Emotions drive us in our lives and have both positive and negative effects.  In the animal kingdom it is basically that the strongest survive...but only because they are stronger...and devoid of any emotional attachment.  They do not have more money, bigger egos, better investment folios, better insight, better accountants or that they were born in a better family.  In the animal kingdom everything is equal.  There is no laziness, no jealousy, no obesity, no regret, no anger or hate...none of the negative emotions that we as humans have to deal with.  Nature has it pretty much sorted out.  If there are a couple of good years and some species over breed, you can be sure that there will be a bad year, and that the weak will not survive and that numbers drop once again to a sustainable level.  In the history of the world, humans have been the only species to cause another species to become extinct...not any other animal...just humans. Any why?  What for??  Humans are the only animals that do not coexist with nature...they exploit it.  But for how much longer? 

There are warning signs...the frogs and the bees are a big worry...plus the human population and feeding that population.  Yes, the world is a big place, but unless enough people start to worry about the little things...like frogs and bees...and unless people start to think outside of their concrete jungles...then that is ultimately all that is going to be left...a human, concrete, artificially natural future.  Certainly not a future I want to leave for my children. 

“You must be the change you want to see in the world” Mahatma Ghandi.  Think about what you can do...and do it.

The telegraph road....what price for progess should nature have to pay???