05 Feb Wise Words & Questions

Last week on NPR I heard some of the wisest, most profound words I'd heard in a long time: "What a gift it is for us to get to come and live on this planet where life grows right out of the ground." These words came from the mouth of Gaul Steiger, one in a long line of cowboy poets. It struck me as a perfectly simple way to express gratitude for life.

Since then I've been thinking about the complexity of natural processes like a seed sprouting. It seems we take natural miracles like this for granted. It just happens. Yet, we've only relatively recently begun to understand on a molecular and cellular level what happens as a plant sprouts and grows. While at the same time we've created very complex systems ourselves for all kinds of things – building, manufacturing, transportation, communication, food production . . . This raises many questions in my mind, like:

• Are we harnessing the power of nature wisely?
• Can we learn to work more in cooperation with natural systems?
• Is it ever really possible to improve upon nature?
• Are we “re-inventing the wheel” with many of our human systems?
• Do we really need to heap so much more complexity onto what's already naturally here on Earth?

The word nature has its origin in the Latin natura meaning birth, innate quality of something, or someone. When something is true to its nature, it seems to work best. It often seems to me our busy, industrialized lives make it a challenge to see the true nature of ourselves and our world.