Excerpts to ponder over for this week from Mitten Strings for God are about Nature.
I think we parents have come to think of nature as something we need to teach our children, something we are meant to provide as a part of their well-rounded education, like music lessons and team sports.
Yet, I've come to realize that a few small, familiar places have made far deeper impressions on my children than all of the whales and panoramic views and rain forest exhibits we could ever offer. The encounters with nature that mean the most to them are those that happen without any agenda at all, beyond going forth to see what's out there. (p 111)
It is so easy in our culture to lose touch with the natural world altogether. We believe we don't have time for nature, and so we ignore our own primal hunger for earth and water and sky. Modern life calls us away from nature's rhythms, away from the kind of observation and interaction with the natural world that can quiet a troubled mind, restore a sense of well-being, and renew our connections with all life. (p 113)
Any relationship requires time, lots of it. If a child is to truly love the natural world, to experience beauty and truth and power at a spiritual level, he or she must first spend time in natural places. In the end, those who will make a real difference in our world - those who will grow up with the confidence and the imagination to help save the earth - will be those who know it well and love it deeply. (p 114)
Meet back next week to link up your post on Nature. To link up your post on this week's topic of Listening, go here.
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