Ar-Kan-Sas! (Beware this one is full of opinions!)

“Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life.” –Rachel Carson

The drive from our night at Texarkana, Texas to Royal, Arkansas was satisfying! I say it was satisfying because that is all you really can say. Big trees embracing fall, letting each leaf process through the season’s change. They explode into colors of red, yellow, and orange that your eye has never seen before. It’s as if they burst out with all their beauty with one last effort before they surrender to the impending doom of winter. Every few miles your eye will catch a glimpse of what the trees are hiding houses, old tractors, beaten cars, farmland, and ponds- more ponds then a girl from California has ever seen. Pleasant. . . enjoyable. . . gratifying. My heart was full. It fills me with thoughts, deep contemplations of what we have done with this planet. Even on a more minuscule level, what have we done to Southern California? What happened to the big trees, the small ponds, the humble abodes? I remember driving through Redlands area as a child and smelling the sweet orange blossoms. They were so intoxicating; I wanted my mom to stop the car so I could breathe them in forever. What happened to all the farms? The honest man’s work…. They have been replaced with shopping malls, track homes with tiny yards, and more shopping malls. Do you think we are happier now living in a concrete jungle? Do high rises, stores, and street lights bring peace in our souls? Or does it just make us angry? Not that I have been on the road long but So.Cal natives aren’t known for their generosity, kindness and happiness! It brings me to one thought only; man needs nature as he needs oxygen. John Muir once said, “Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.” If wise men have said things like this over 70 years ago how much more are we in need of it now, as the concrete jungle begins to enclose around us like a virus enveloping the body. There were miles and miles in between houses on our drive and lots and lots of trees. Rolling hills and determined workers in the fields. I was inspired. I realized how lazy even I have become in my day to day life. I have become so used to all these luxuries in life that I didn’t even realize they were luxury. I saw them all as necessity.  Breaks my heart. Then I remembered this quote from Standing Bear, “Man’s heart away from nature becomes hard.” It’s not as if I think we should all revert back to life without technology, all own farms or ranches, and have a horse-drawn buggy, but man do you think we could find a happy medium somehow. That’s all I really want. Experience hard honest work, taste the fruits of our own labor, and most of all be in the midst of the incredible world that we live in. I want to cultivate and nurture the beauty we have been given instead of tear it down. What will be left for our generations to come? At the rate we are going I am afraid to even ponder this question.

“In wilderness I sense the miracle of life, and behind it our scientific accomplishments fade to trivia.”
-Charles A. Lindbergh

So my challenge to you this week… get outside, go for a hike or a walk, experience the wilderness and then leave us a comment and tell us what you think?

 

(Pictures to come soon!)