New Life… Nature’s Renewal
Nature is filled with uncertainty, with complexity, and with chaos. Nature has underlying rhythm and order too, just beneath what we most often see on the surface. Despite the complex exterior, nature’s simple rules are being followed, over and over, eon after eon, regardless of the conditions, and independent of any attempt to change them. It is in this way that nature sustains her purpose- The Process Of Creative Expression.
If you think about it, none of nature’s creations are preserved forever. Trees die; canyons deepen; rivers come and go; animals live their lives, and then pass the responsibility to their young. What is preserved however is the process – the ability to create, to recreate, to improve, to innovate. These are the processes that power evolution, and leave us with the extraordinary variety and majestic beauty that resonates in all of us.
There’s a rhythm to this process of creative expression. Of all life’s rhythms, one that captivates my heart, and my vision, is the miracle of new life – birth, mothers and their young. For it is here that nature shows us first-hand, with grace and beauty found perhaps nowhere else, the recurring patterns and rhythm in all her creations.
The natural essence of each of earth’s creatures is embedded in its DNA – a world of life experience and evolution passed down to each generation, offering most of what these youngsters need in order to survive, and to take their place in the cycle of life. Through their mother’s nurture, they learn the rest.
New life is fragile, yet it’s also tenacious, reminding us of the delicate balance that makes nature so resilient. The emergence of new life touches our senses. Perhaps it’s the cuddly appearance; maybe it’s the visible expression of nurture and love; it could be the quiet lessons – of adaptability, of acceptance, of the need for skill, of the value of play; or perhaps it’s the way nature reconnects us with wildness – that innate but lost part of ourselves we long to regain, that part of us that most wants to be alive in this world and to enjoy our own process of creative expression. In this way, my connection with nature has touched my soul. The joy of experiencing mothers and their young has rekindled my own reverence for life and offered me a deeper relationship – both with myself and with my world. When I’m in nature, I feel the quiet sense of peace and meaning that comes from knowing I am a part of something truly remarkable.
Over the years, I’ve been blessed by Mother Nature with one remarkable moment after another as I have shared time with brown bear cubs in the early months of their lives, returning each year to observe their mothers continued nurture that is vital to their sustaining as adults. Now, I am experiencing mothers of those cubs with yet another generation of cubs, observing the same process of love, caring and nurture -- passed along.
Rhythms; cycles; patterns in nature. They sustain nature, and now they sustain me, driving my vision of what’s worth preserving in our fragile world.
~ Dee Ann