Lessons Learned From Nature

As a child I spent so much time in nature that I will sometimes catch myself saying that I was raised in the mountains. I have a seldom, spoken-of love and respect for nature that is on a level that only another person who holds the same reverence for nature could understand. Henry David Thorough spent two years living in the woods, which is not enough in my opinion, and wrote a book about his experiences that he titled Walden, named after the pond he lived on. I have recently read this book and it has piqued my interest enough to make me want to share some thoughts and feelings about living with nature and what there is to learn.

Henry David Thorough is most well-known for this quote,

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

This quote is well into the book and at that point I didn’t believe he had even scratched the surface of what there was to learn from the woods. He had written a lot about observing nature with meticulous detail and how to survive by barely getting by so that a person may have some leisure time. I believe that there is a lot to observe and learn from nature, but there is a spiritual level that a person must come to know that makes you feel connected to an eternal realm of beauty and wonder and testifies of our Creator.

Most of his writings were only to prove that a poor man can have time to gain knowledge and progress his intellect by living simply off the land and supporting himself. He had strong feelings that society wasted too much time and money on materialistic, superfluous traditions that were only performed because everyone does them and deems them necessary. It is ironic to me that more than a century and half later, society has fallen so much further into that foolishness that he described so long ago.

Toward the end of the book, Thorough finally taps into what I feel there really is to learn from nature. He says,

“I delight to come to my bearings--not walk in procession with pomp and parade, in a conspicuous place, but to walk even with the Builder of the universe, if I may--not to live in this restless, nervous, bustling, trivial Nineteenth Century, but stand or sit thoughtfully while it goes by. What are men celebrating? They are all on a committee of arrangements, and hourly expect a speech from somebody. God is the only president of the day. . .”

Thorough begins to see a bigger picture from having spent time in the woods, from having spent time in silence to think and ponder on our short, little lives. He begins to tell about how important it is to gain education from nature. He made me realize how much of what I know now I learned from experiencing nature in one of the deepest ways possible, by hunting. He writes,

“. . . my friends have asked me anxiously about their boys, whether they should let them hunt, I have answered, yes--remembering that it was one of the best parts of my education." "It requires so much closer attention to the habits of [nature] that no other sport can substitute."

Thorough no longer prefers to hunt with a gun and I haven’t for a while either unless my freezer is empty. I have been privileged enough to hunt most of my life that I now can go out into nature and see it on the same level. There are so many lessons to learn beyond observing the patterns of animals and the elements of weather conditions and terrain and how they all effect the cycles of life and animals. You learn so much about yourself. Patience, endurance, respect for life, strength, hunting abilities, maturity and more than I can list. Thorough goes on to say about the matter,

“We cannot but pity the boy who has never fired a gun; he is no more humane, while his education has been sadly neglected,”

“Such is oftenest the young man’s introduction to the forest, and the most original part of himself.”

We could all use some time away from society and noise. If only for a few hours to have some time alone to just think. It is amazing what can happen to a person who is left alone in nature long enough to begin to evaluate his life, his past and his future. Such a person would benefit in a most positive way. I have recently been told that nature is the best learning environment because you are surrounded only by the truest beauty in the purest and most uncorrupted form.

I’m so happy that I was fortunate enough to be raised in the mountains. To appreciate what they can hold for a person’s soul. I will most definitely pass on the learning experiences to my posterity and continue to enjoy the benefits of a heaven on earth.