My Nature Experience

Peaceful, serene, and gentle. These are the words that usually describe nature. But on October 6, 2007, that was exactly the opposite. There was laughter instead of peacefulness. There was garbage instead of serenity. Also, overall, my experience was wild, not exactly gentle.

When I first heard that we were going to the woods, I was excited. Not only did we get out of class for a while, we got to explore a little. We gathered into groups and headed past the library to the dark forest just ahead. The air was filled with laughter and conversation about sports and shopping malls, rather than silent observation. As we entered the endless green, we walked a short way, then found a ropes course. Constant chatter among my classmates disrupted the peace surrounding us. My friends were not as excited as I was when they learned of out afternoon expedition. Mostly, they stood still in one area and talked amongst themselves. I left them behind.

On the dense forest floor, there were scattered beer bottles and soda cans reminding everyone of possible party or gathering. They took away from my experience, as they tainted the serenity of the woods. I who had been there and tainted the image of the green bed. The sun gently smiled through the thick treetops as i wiped my eyes. A squirrel darted out of the bush behind the bottles and i began to wonder why someone, if they knew that animals lived there, would intentionally throw trash on the floor.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said:
"I dug my cellar in the side of a hill sloping to the south, where a woodchuck had formerly dug his burrow, down through sumac and blackberry roots, and the lowest stain of vegetation, six feet square by seven deep, to a fine sand where potatoes would not freeze in any winter. The sides were left shelving, and not stoned; but the sun having never shone on them, the sand still keeps its place. It was but two hours' work. I took particular pleasure in this breaking of ground, for in almost all latitudes me dig into the earth for an equable temperature. Under the most splendid house in the city is still to be found the cellar where they store their roots as of old, and long after the superstructure has disappeared posterity remark its dent in the earth. The house is still but a sort of porch at the entrance of a burrow."
Ralph Emerson loved nature. He would have hated to see the litter on the floor of his passion. The whole experience wasn't peaceful by any means. It was full of noise and thorns and other things. I didn't really get the full experience i wanted to out of it. Being a transparent eyeball means observing silently--meditating. Instead, my class and I were loud, not very observant. Now that I look back, I think I would choose to do more observing and less talking. Then, i could get the peaceful, serene, and gentle experience I was after.