Nature Reflection #2

 




Nature Reflection #2

         

            I was sitting in my backyard one afternoon, listening to my audiobook and enjoying a cigar, when this little guy ran up to me. At first, I got really excited because I thought he was a horned frog (which would have been an excellent omen for the football season), but then I remembered how rare and how small they are. Clearly this guy was not a horned frog. When I went down to take a picture, he turned towards the camera like he was posing on the red carpet for paparazzi. He then moved on to our black firepit, found a nice sunny spot, and layed out. What struck me about this moment was how fleeting and chance-based it was. There are two sides of beauty in nature I think: the constant and the moment. The constant are the tall mountain peaks, the one tree you love, a sunset, a sunrise, a river making its way through a lush valley. Those things are ancient and permanent. In places filled with this “forever beauty”, I often feel the sense of how small I am and how vast nature is. It is a calming feeling and you can always count on those no matter what. The moment nature are things one witnesses completely by chance like that lizard, an eagle diving for fish, or a deer silhouetted against the evening sky. These can often feel even more special because I think “did I really just witness that?”. It blows my mind further that moments like that are happening all of the time in nature without being seen or recorded by mankind. There have been colossal battles, wild hunts, and heart wrenching stories that nobody will ever know about. When those chance encounters do come, whether it is a lizard bathing in the sun or a leopard taking down a gazelle, I want to appreciate it. It is a brief glimpse into the daily world that goes unseen. When you are able to experience a moment of beauty in a place of forever beauty, you know you hit the jackpot.

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