Nature Journal 4

After reading the Rachel Carson excerpt “The Marginal World” and Thoreau’s “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For”, I found myself considering my own reality and what I might be missing. Carson approaches the theme of reality in a few ways. She presents difficult concepts like “awareness of the past and of the continuing flow of time” by framing it with a metaphor of a shoreline. All is washed away. What may leave an impact, like a bird’s tracks in the sand, will always be washed away by the water. I may leave an impact on my family, friends, and community, but time will wash away my name and everything I lived for while here on earth. How do we make a life knowing that our existence is insignificant? Thoreau would answer that we must live deliberately – like nature – settle ourselves, work, and dig through the mess of opinions, prejudice, and delusions to uncover our rock bottom, reality.

It seems that the natural world already understands the “cosmic realities of their world” while we live in a delusion. I was already questioning the purpose of my pace of life, especially life of a university student, when I read this Thoreau quote, “Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life?” As a student, it’s easy to answer that we live quickly because everyone around us is pushing us to be better and do more; we feel a need to be in constant competition with those around us. Our future now seems hinged on our ability to perform and get a good job and not on our ability to enjoy life and understand the greater truths of humanity.

Nature Journal 3

While reading through Thoreau’s section of Walden, I felt like his realizations about life and society where similar to what I felt coming back to the United States after studying abroad. In “Economy”, he talks about how he is “a sojourner in civilized life” and “the narrowness of [his] experience”. I chose to study abroad in Nepal because I knew that it would challenge me mentally and emotionally. I took intense language courses and lived with a Nepali family that helped me develop my language skills and cultural awareness. I lived a completely different lifestyle than my normal day-to-day activities in the US. I struggle to talk about my experiences because I don’t want to burden others with the stories – the reality of life is harsh for people of lesser developed nations. 

After realizing I could live with so little, it was difficult to adjust to life back in the States. “Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.” I realize that the things I want to buy are not necessary, and yet I still feel the urge to continue consuming at an unsustainable rate. While I still struggle to understand why I fall into consumerist habits, I am thankful to be shaken by my experiences. I am thankful to be awake to this issue in my life, because so many around me are still asleep. Thoreau implores us to live simply, but I think this is becoming more and more difficult as our culture continues to develop and strive towards interconnectedness and values personal success. 

Nature Journal 2

Today, I took my dog on a few hikes. He’s a puppy with boundless energy, so it sometimes feels like a task to get out and walk with him because he ends up pulling me through the trails. It was a perfect, autumnal Indiana day – 55 degrees, sunny, and the trees are beginning to change colors. There are no trails near my home, so I had to drive to get to some nature preserves. While Thoreau would say that driving doesn’t allow for the necessary appreciation of nature, I think that driving an old Jeep with the windows down is worthy alternative. Ollie knows that car rides usually end with trails and adventures, so he was excited the entire ride. Once we arrived at the first trail, the Portland Arch, he leaped out of the car and started pulling away from me. The trail here is a short circle, so it only took us about 30 minutes to walk the entire thing. I mapped us to another place, called the Potholes, and we were on our way.

Once we got to the Potholes, there were no cars in the lot, so I let Ollie of the leash and let him roam. The preserve is informally known as the Potholes because there are big holes left in the sandstone that the stream has been cutting away for thousands of years. When I first came here as a kid and heard the history of the holes, I remember being so surprised that Indiana was old. Until that point, I thought Indiana was only as old as the white people who lived there first. At the end of the trail, there is a small waterfall with a smooth, flat rock to sit on. I sat there for about 20 minutes while Ollie ran around and played in the water.

Nature Journal 1

A few semesters ago, I enrolled in a religion class. The course title was “Understanding Religion: Communities – World Religion Through the Centuries” and I was only taking it to fulfill a core requirement for my degree. What I didn’t realize until the first few classes was how much we would be focusing on Native American spiritualities. Now, I can reflect on the class and see how it was a pleasant surprise because it has changed the way that I read Native American works or understand current events. Since spirituality is a main pillar of Native American life, we learned about how their beliefs affected their everyday life and actions. When reading the text from Luther Standing Bear, I was reminded of some of these things and I felt like I was better able to understand the context of Nature.

In class, we talked about world views and how the colonizers worldview compared with the Natives. Native people strive to live in balance with all the living things, and thus feel more connected to what is around them. They believe everything is equal, that their live is not more valuable than the trees or the animals. Standing Bear recognizes this difference, saying “The Indian and the white man sense things differently because the white man has put distance between himself and nature; and assuming a lofty place in the scheme of order of things has lost for him both reverence and understanding.” When I spend time outside, I don’t feel this interconnectedness or reverence of my surroundings; there are a few exceptions, like when I went to Yosemite Valley or the Himalayas. I only feel reverence when I am surrounded by nature that puts me in my place, that makes me confront my own insignificance.