I wrote this in my journal July 4th....sorry I'm so late posting it. and sorry I haven't made a post in a while. My move has been pretty crazy and stressful so I'm just starting to get back to my computer.
Growing up in Texas, I feel like I lost some of my sense of adventure and my wonder at the beauty of nature. Other than sand dunes and some mediocre trees, there's really not that much to inspire either of the above. I regained both today. For Independence Day my family and I went to Mohican State Park in...well...somewhere in Ohio. We picnicked (is that how you spell that? is that even considered a real word?...) by a beautiful creek with a big covered bridge that you can stand on to overlook the creek and all of the trees and just the beauty of nature. That was incredible. There simply is NOT this brand of beauty in Texas. End of story. I love Texas, don't get me wrong, but I appreciate the urban parts & the atmosphere, not really the rugged terrain...I was gone so long that I had completely forgotten how incredible nature is up here! It's simply breathtaking.
I also discovered my new favorite place in the world: Clear Fork Gorge, which is also in Mohican State Park. It is over 1000 feet wide and 300 feet deep and has been largely untouched by humans and contains several kinds of trees which have become very rare. It also holds historical significance because Johnny Appleseed apparently traveled around the Gorge regularly while tending his apple orchards nearby. Despite all these impressive-ish facts...it is simply gorgeous. I sat at the overlook for over an hour just staring at the Gorge in pure awe. It really takes your breath away and puts you in your place.
I've grown up in such a self-centered, destructive society that I've become so complacent to just how small I am in this huge world. In a world where I am surrounded by cleared off, paved streets and commercialized buildings, houses, and transportation, it has become so easy for me to get stuck in an artificial mindset. The Gorge was so big and beautiful that it really set me straight from this mindset. When you can hop in your little regulated, man-made, manufactured car and travel down man-made roads and know exactly where you are going and what you are doing, it is so easy to feel definitively important, like you've conquered the earth. With no trees in sight, nothing but high rises and fancy apartments, you must have conquered nature, right? There can't be anything else, can there?
This is where we need to wake up! Going to the Gorge helped me to realize that I haven't conquered nature; I'm nowhere close! It is so vast and powerful and majestic and we are so small and insignificant! We feel like we're above needing something so powerful, but when we truly experience it, it just breaks us and rebuilds us into something beautiful.
Instead of seeking to conquer nature, why not let it conquer us? Take it in! Let it overwhelm you! If I could have everyone experience things in their lives, it would, by far, be the simple things: to look at the trees, to watch rain hit a lake or creek or river, to feel the wind on your face, to hear the wind in the trees, to feel the rain on your skin, to hear the birds chirping...to experience nature at it's fullest....
I do not believe that to experience life is to be successful in your job or have a good looking spouse or well behaved children, although none of these things are bad. I believe that to experience life...to truly experience it at its fullest....is to strip it of luxury and all things artificial and to simply feel life and nature sheerly overwhelm you. To let it take your breath away. To live it.
.love.
sarah.elaine
the small being
