Back in the 1880s while living as a sawyer in Yosemite National Park, America's first ecologist, John Muir, lived face to face with nature. He climbed into the High Sierras throughout his life. He summited mountains, fished in clear streams and discovered deep secrets of Earth's eternal gyrations. He became a prolific writer and poet. Muir loved the deepest perfection of nature's web of life.
At one point, in order to feel what a tree felt during an incoming tempest, he decided to climb a 125-foot lodge pole pine as the storm front raged over the valley. Knowing the winds could whip him out of the tree, he roped himself to the topmost portion of the trunk.
That night, raging gusts pulled at him. Wild torrents soaked him. Cold winds pelted him with sleet. In the morning, he climbed out of the tree with a profound understanding of nature's ability to equip each of its creatures with the perfect design to thrive during the tempests of life.
Muir wrote, "How many hearts with warm red blood in them are beating under the cover of the woods, and how many teeth and eyes are shining? A multitude of animal people, intimately related to us, but whose lives we know nothing, are as busy about their own affairs as we are about ours."
Think a moment about that statement. Every creature lives his or her life according to a master design and a master strategy. Animals live by instinct to their highest and best survival.
Humans equate to animals that think, but nothing more. Subsequently, we enjoy choice of paths, purpose and possibilities.
At the same time, we face sunny skies, quiet days, dreary days and storms that may toss us every which way but loose. So, for our lives, we need to cultivate in ourselves deep roots to hold us in the whirlwinds that cross over us at each juncture of our existence.
Rachel Naomi Remen once talked about her life as a little girl. Her father and mother loved constructing puzzles. However, her father always hid the puzzle face so she didn't know how it would look when completed.
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