Nature
By Katie Northrup

I believe in nature--to live in it, with it, among it as much as possible. I believe happiness comes from appreciation and wonder at just being alive on this beautiful planet.

That the sun rises every morning and sets every night--without fail--is wondrous to me.

Craggy mountains, wind-carved deserts, blue-green seas are endlessly lovely, to me.

I've seen wild deer a thousand times and enjoyed every glimpse. I've seen a wild grizzly bear only once, and that encounter is blazed in my memory.

I find joy in twisting Aspen leaves, darting blue dragonflies and spring-scented breezes.

It is, to me, amazing that water droplets recycle and renew themselves endlessly--from rain, to river, to sea, to cloud.

To me, it is miraculous that a cell can live as worm or human--it makes no difference to the living.

I found nature as a child, traipsing for miles behind my Dad as he fished. He delicately flipped flies into streams; I searched for frogs, picked flowers, and climbed rocks. We got muddy, wet feet and bit by mosquitoes. While I never took to the fishing part, I loved everything else. I remember once, I was probably about 10 years old, I got bored watching my Dad fish and wandered off. I spotted a scrap of snow leftover from winter. It was at the base of a treeless rocky slope, not too far away. I headed that way. It took longer than I expected to reach the snow, but I did. I took a cold bite of snow, plopped down to admire the view, than headed back. The lake my Dad was fishing at was no longer in view. I thought, well it's just over this next rise. It wasn't. But I felt confident of my direction and sure enough I eventually found myself back to where I'd started off in the first place. I felt proud--never afraid. Out in nature is a good place to be.

I believe nature is essential to human life, not just because we need water, food and air to live, but because we need wholeness. To me, nature fills an unexplainable human need.

For this reason, I believe in living as gently upon the planet as possible--to protect, preserve or let it alone, as the case may be. I believe human survival depends upon it.

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