The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur

August 16Nature's Gift

Let us draw a lesson from nature, which always works by short ways. When the fruit is ripe, it falls. When the fruit is dispatched, the leaf falls. We judge a person's wisdom by their hope, knowing that the inexhaustibleness of nature is an immortal youth.

Ralph Waldo Emerson—“Spiritual Laws” (1841)

Time and again the transcendentalists turned to mystical descriptions of nature for lessons in their writings.

Subsequent nature authors such as Edward Abbey, Aldo Leopold, and John Muir credit Thoreau and Emerson's influence in their writing.

Emerson's essay titled “Nature” includes these words: “In the woods, we return to reason and faith.”

They did not, however, stop at the promotion of nature as something merely to be appreciated. They believed that all human beings are connected and that nature played the role of catalyst for this connection.

Okay, before we start exploring biospheres and self-regulating ecosystems, consider this huge generalization: few people have ever not felt better, stronger, more present, from going and sitting in a forest for a while.

Nature's greatest gifts are those that allow us simplicity, patience, effortlessness, sustainability, and perhaps hope. Who knows? They might help.

Today, go have a sensory experience in nature and just witness what happens.

Challenge Question

1. When you go outdoors next, what do you see, hear, feel, smell, taste, and sense?