Our relationship with nature has been so downgraded that we no longer see the enormity of the problem.

We also have excessive whaling, a rampant increase in deforestation, losses of whole animal species and so much more.

Sometimes we have to see things in little bite sizes to make sense of them. The huge oil spills are too vast to comprehend.  But the image of a pelican covered in oil speaks volumes.

I found a poem I had written some time ago that I called “Patterns in the Sand.”

On a very tiny scale it may have some slight relevance to our connection with nature.

So herewith my description of the fragile relationship with nature that we are rapidly losing:

Patterns in the Sand

No more the rustling in the reeds
where finches shout out from the trees
as sunlight gleams on flashing wings
and yellow feathers drift like leaves;
Where grass nests swing in hammocked cadence
teasing muddied streams below;
and dipping branches brush the froth-foamed
earth-browned water’s bubbling flow.

No more the arches overhead
where branches meet in tunneled shade
and close by on the shaded banks
the long-legged crane and water-fowl
print cross-hatched patterns on the sand.

For Nature was improved upon;
and altered till the wilds were gone
No mountain springs or inland streams;
but heated pools and cultured zoos;
with neatly labeled bars and cells;
all individual private hells.

Yes, Nature’s been neutered, cramped and computed
Her voice will be muted for decades to come.
She’s been catalogued and classified,
corrected and defined
homogenized and purified,
amended and refined.

Gusts of progress everywhere
Have blasted through the land
And finches’ nests have blown away
Like patterns in the sand.

© Copyright

Have you ever noticed how the intricate veins of a leaf appear to mirror the structure of the whole tree?

There are myriads of patterns in nature that are continuously unfolding but they mostly play out to an unobservant audience

Many years ago, people used to be aware of these details and were more in tune with nature than we are today. Sadly, we have lost our connection with nature and we can no longer read the signs.

Only when we get a rude awakening once in a while, do we start to pay the slightest attention to nature’s messages. But we ignore them at our peril.

The recent oil spill in the gulf is just one example of the damage that can be done when we don’t take note of the bigger pattern.

And then from an unlikely source we get a strange reminder of the mysteries of nature and something seems to resonate within us.

I’m thinking of the work at the Hadron Collider in Switzerland that recently gave us just such a reminder of our relationship with nature.

Celestial Music

It has been reported that a number of physicists at Cern have been trying to simulate the sounds of sub-atomic particles.

The result of this was a strange kind of celestial music – almost like a modern composition.

Archer Endrich is reported to have said that the physicists who were working on the project were hoping to hear the background music of the universe.

“You feel closer to the mystery of Nature which I think a lot of scientists do when they get deep into these matters,” he said.

“It’s so intriguing and there’s so much mystery and so much to learn. The deeper you go, the more of a pattern you find and it’s fascinating and it’s uplifting.”

What more can one say?

We have lost the old sense of well-being that people used to derive from the rural way of life that was somehow sustaining and reassuring.

We have been separated from the spiritual sanctity of forests and we have been denied the comforting familiarity of well-known woodland paths.

The rose-covered cottage is a myth and we have lost our synchronization with the slow, unhurried earth rhythms that bring in seasonal changes.

And although we are surrounded with many wonderful artifacts and inventions, we have lost the very essence of our humanity because the urban way of life has desensitized us towards nature.

We have become emotionally disorientated and spiritually disconnected because we have lost our way in the rampant jungles of civilization which have progressively altered the face of the earth, changed the environment and modified the climate.

Urbanization and cities erupt about us with tall, forest-like structures of cement and chrome.

Buildings are piled high on one another because space has run out and the pores of the earth are so deeply clogged with concrete that nature can hardly breathe.

Our constructions cover large areas of earth with deep layers of concrete and tar and the jagged horizons of high-rise buildings that extend like huge bar graphs into the sky have taken their toll on our psychic equilibrium.

We have lost our relationship with Nature