Nature Is My Home

As a child, I unraveled nature’s beauty and existence. Each new experience brought me feelings of excitement and joy, sparkling my imagination and igniting my curiosity. It all seemed so large back then. Oceans appeared endless as they reached towards the horizon. Treetops seemed to make friends with the puffy-looking clouds as they soared to the sky. Over the years however, as I have grown older and life has become more complex, I am beginning to think less and less about the natural world around me. I glimpse sunset stuck in rush-hour traffic trying to return school after debate practices and only listen to the pitter-patter of the rain when there’s a storm outside. Forests and oceans seemed less appealing as they became intertwined with the urban development. In a way, I was becoming more and more distanced from the so-called nature. So, with an overwhelming desire for adventure and to escape the masses, my family and I drove to Big Bend National Park in Southwest Texas last summer.

Standing up on the sand, I felt the rays embrace in my skin. Walking out to the water I recieved cold chills of the wet sand between my toes, As I walking I spotted a little crab burrowing in the wet sand, trying to hide before it turned into a lunch predator. As I brought myself to knee deep in the water there were waves of soft currents that splashed upon my face. It felt refreshing to my skin like a glass of iced water on a hot day. An abundance colored, and variously sized fish swarm around my feet. Their bodies brushed against my leg with inattentiveness to get to one place to another. I could help to wonder what their rush could be. In a blink of eye, Crash! A monster wave hits me and pushes me all the way the shore. Taking a seat back down on the uneven dry sand, I ran my hands through the smooth surface. I laid back and let myself absorb the blistering rays on the sun upon my skin. As my feet soaked down into the moist sand, I realized the most beautiful place on earth would have to be the

The concept of suburbia quickly morphed into something far different from country living. Over the years, urban sprawl has created vast suburbs. Instead of local shops, the suburbs we know today have large malls full of box stores. Highways connect our suburbs to the city center instead of railways and the modern suburb doesn 't have the same sense of community that the original suburbs had. According to the documentary, "suburban life" and everything that comes with it has been packaged and sold in bulk to many Americans and Canadians. And this package we call "The American Dream", which is simply of a mockery or a satire of what the original suburbs used to be like, is

The outdoors is hidden to many people around the world. All many see is the huge skyscrapers and whitewash walls of the cities. These people don’t tend to be as happy because there isn’t a stress reliever, or a place to get away to. They need this place so that they can have some time to just relax, learn, and develop true happiness. The outdoors is an escape for those who know it and are available to experience it on a regular basis. These places can be the Great Redwood Forests and Lake Almanor in California, to Canada’s vast river and lake systems, to the fields of Kansas, and the mountains of New Zealand. All of these places have one thing in common, the freedom to live. So many city dwellers don’t get to experience these things, which rural people hold to so dearly. The constant hustle and bustle of the city tends to keep people from their happiness. The stress of city life has a way to go “out the window” when you spend time outside with yourself and nature. The ones who can experience the life in the

“Could it be that we are supposed to be talking to the plants and animals, interacting with them, accepting the gifts they offer, and using them in ways that further their growth?”(Starhawk, 162). I feel this quote from “Our Place in Nature” is a great way to start the topic of how artists uses plant life in their work. It shows how artists might try to interact with the environment for ideas on the works that they come up. I feel also that they are trying to be one with the environment. I feel if you spend enough time in nature, you will build a strong connection with everything around you. This comment is justified when Starhawk said, “I can walk into any forest where the trees are strange and understand something about the relationships

Leopold expresses, “a system of conservation based solely on economic self-interest is hopelessly lopesided,” (p. 251). The self-interest economists who are only interested in the profit of which they gain from the land cannot spread the importance of the respect for the community. The people who share a knowledge and passion for the environment will educate those who are unaware. As well as being educated on the land, it is essential for humanity to understand that we are not users of what Earth has to offer us, but associates,

Through the creation of suburban neighborhoods middle class families have been able to achieve upward mobility. With the creation of suburban neighborhoods in the 1950’s it gave families the opportunities to go out and buy their little piece of the American Dream. The time of poverty from the Great Depression was over as was the second World War and then it was a time that the American Dream was well within reach. However with this outward expansion, for those who could not afford to leave, it also brought about a higher crime rate, as well as lower educational standards in the people living in the inner cities. Today suburban neighborhoods can be seen to have many different stereotypes in the media as well. Suburbia, when it was born

Aldo Leopold and Schaeffer have both been key contributors to my beliefs and opinions and they have helped me shape my own personal land ethic. In Leopold’s essay titled The Land Ethic he makes several great points. Among these I have found the community concept, substitutes for a land ethic and the future outlook to be the most important. Leopold states, “All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts”(p.2). As humans we have a job and typically we show care for the things that we really like and enjoy. But a question we need to ask ourselves is who do we love and what do we care about? We live in community with everything around us including the plants, and all

What comes to mind when you think of terms like: suburbia, urban sprawl, NIMBY, sustainability? We will discuss some of them in further detail, but one thing is for certain, these are all concepts that will effect every single American Citizen in the near future; if they do not already. The documentary Suburban America: Problems & Promises explores some of the intricacies and roles that suburban development has played in the past and gives us insight as to what might be see moving forward in to the future. This fascinating documentary is just shy of one hour, but it covers a surprising amount of ground in that time.

In turn, this allows the visitors to experience the natural beauty, charm, and spiritual significance of the “true world” in almost the exact same light as even the earliest of environmental philosophers, such as Henry David Thoreau. Being exposed and actually walking through these lands allows people to go beyond their desktop screensaver aesthetic admiration for the natural world and really connect to and feel in their own individual way the majestic powers of the wild. One example, among many, of these powers would be the opportunity for extreme solitude, time for personal reflection, and an outlet for escape. The benefits of such introspection could entail an increased sense of vitality, self reliance, confidence and moral strength. “New Englander Joseph Knowles proposed setting aside ‘wild lands’ and establishing outdoor communities where Americans could retreat from the ‘commercialism and the mad desire to make money that have blotted out everything else leaving us not living, but merely existing.”’ There are no advertisements trying to persuade one to buy this, or upgrade to this new form of “must have” technology in the wilderness. There is no boss or professor demanding work or assignments, there is just pure bliss. When people get out and really smell the pollutant free fresh

Nature presents itself around us every day, sprouting between the sidewalk and the street, potted on a porch or controlled and planned out in sectioned off lots often accompanied by a playground. Living in the city, we are not often presented with the unpredictable qualities of wild nature, an environment that is more likely to make the average person feel like an explorer of uncharted territory than a trip to the neighborhood park would ever make us feel.

America, in the early colonial years, was mostly country. Multitudes of people lived on farms, and few towns existed. As time has passed, America has innovated, and now millions of prodigious cities overpower the dwindling areas of the country. Because of the numerous towns, rarely any Americans have experienced the modest country life. Some individuals believe that the city is superior to the nation only by considering the conveniences that the city possesses. However, nearly all Americans have yet to realize the specialness of this country. It is an improved place to live in the city because it is peaceful, self sufficient, and beautiful.

It was day two on the Appalachian Trail. The rich robust smell of pine permeated the air. The Sparrows caroled, and the soothing warm glow of the sun, warmed my body as the elevation increased. I was completely engulfed in nature. As the trail progressed, a couple friends and I reached the first cairn. We were 500 feet from the summit of Mt. Avery. We soon took our last steps, lowered our bags, and shared smiles. Immediately we were taken hold of by the ear ringing silence. Not a gust of wind, nor a chirp from a bird, it was complete serenity. As we took in the view I realized something that changed me completely. I was

Momaday describes living “in” one’s environment as a form of intimacy: “There is an intimate, vital link between the earth and himself”. There are habits and activities that define this condition. Hunters hunt animals, but they do not hunt them into extinction. People grow vegetables, such as, corn, squash, and beans. They also gather fruit to consume. They make arrangements to live on the land without being detrimental to it: “He lives on the land: he takes his living from it: but he does not destroy it”.

A ways away from a town that I call home, I found a happy place. I often find myself walking through the park by myself. The beautiful trees, the way the yellow and red leaves crumple under my feet every step I take. When the flowers bloom and how it's the most spectacular sight you could ever imagine seeing, all the different colors that appear. When you breathe in and you get this smell of purity, you feel free and alive. Sometimes I like to sit on the old wooden bench where the bench frame is a little rusted, and I get rid of my thoughts and my eyes search the sky. In the winter the icy breeze makes me shiver, and the cold air I take in, is like sitting in front of an air conditioner and breathing in. Some mornings the sun beams across the sky, which is not quite blue yet, but the sun has almost fully risen. When the wind blows, it grazes over the blades of grass. Some days I just stand and take a deep breath in and I can taste the spring. When summer comes around, and the bees are buzzing, and the hot sun beats on the back of my neck, I lay on the soft grass and listen, to the birds chirping a beautiful song, and the kids playing in the park. The sky is the bluest view in sight.