This reminded me of something I learned from Wolf Hardin, who talks of how our appreciation of nature, our loving and experiencing it, is a recriprocal process----not only do we gain pleasure in and from nature, but nature becomes more fully sentient through our appreciation of it. Thus, not only do we feel gratitude for nature's bountiful beauty, nature feels gratitude for our appreciation!
As a child of nine or ten, I remember lying in bed at night, looking up at my hands spread in the air, moving my fingers, marveling at my hands' construction. I felt that I had streamers of light emanating from my fingers, but I didn't have words for those feelings at the time.
Only now am I coming to understand that this feeling is a part of my learning about my soul and coming to inhabit it more fully. What a beautiful way to see life, as a progression toward this ultimate habitat of nature-woven soul.
Crater Lake National Park:
