Practicum...Spiritual Retreat Reaction

Henry Beston in Night on the Great Beach explains how we have destroyed some of the best parts of nature. We really don't appreciate the little things of nature. He goes in to great detail on how we have ruined night and continues to describe the little aspects of nature that we miss. Beston see nature as something that we don't respect anymore, but he has great love for it. It says to me that I don't appreciate nature. I never sit back and just enjoy it.

Vibrant hues of orange and yellow were smeared together and they played with violent shades of red. The rising sun rested in a bed of golden rose, cotton clouds. Its rays of light spilling over the hills like pale orange paint. At least, that's what I imagined this sunrise would look like in a world without skyscrapers and other assorted buildings suffocating the horizon, sucking the life out of the beauty that nature gives us, and replacing it with smoke, oil, and the stench of our ever growing need to expand. Our need, humanity's need to leave no blade of grass behind, to cover every inch of the earth with pollution and man made roads and structures, is what is destroying the beauty that nature provides.

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.

I confess, I all too well know that living in the digital age, I have hindered my opportunities to immerse myself in nature like Henry David Thoreau. There is rarely a day that passes by that I do not use my cell phone or computer. Too often I forget that the outside world is more enigmatic and dynamic than anything that can be found on the computer or in the concrete jungle I enter when I go back home. I crave the mesmerizing and reflective space that nature has always provided since the dawn of time. Nature allows me to feel alone, but also become a part of something at the very same time. Thoreau beautifully claims, “We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all

Throughout today’s society there are several different cultural perspectives which form theoretical and practical understandings of natural environments, creating various human-nature relationship types. In this essay, I will describe and evaluate different ways of knowing nature and the impact of these views on human-nature relationships. From this, I will then explore my own human-nature relationship and reflect on how my personal experiences, beliefs and values has led me to this view, whilst highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each and reflecting upon Martin’s (1996) continuum.

for a whole year grew in ways that i wouldn't imagine mostly mentally seeing the world different, and how people really are. I read a lot of books that i could relate to made sure i kept

Understanding the beauty in nature has always been a struggle of mine. In this world of iPhones, laptops, and television at our fingertips, one can become trapped in the black hole of becoming disconnected with nature. I have always planted a flower garden and watching each color try to outshine the other showed me the purest of joys in life; everyone has a pull inside their natural being to be one with nature. Looking at all the awesome creatures God has made for this Earth made me realize that He wants us to enjoy our time on this physical land while we can.

The beautiful blossoms that bloom in Californian spring, the summer daisies alongside the cooling lake, long after the summer the trees have lost their leaves entering autumn to fresh white snow out in the mountains. Nature is able to show us its true beauty without any falseness and modifications. After all, is it not ironic how people go to museums to look at paintings of colorful flowers, green hills, and clear water streams; those are beauties that can easily be observed in real life outside of the urban environment which are surrounded by them, or how people buy recordings of the calming sounds of nature, similar to what you would listen to at night in the woods or smell nature aromas of the candles. What we are doing is trying to mislead our minds and pretend to think that we are in the woods but are instead cornered inside our small, well-furnished, and full -with-technology apartment.

While discussing Henry David Thoreau's Walden and Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac, we attempted to address an important challenge -- Is the close observation and description of nature merely an idle thing for people in today's world? It could be suggested that nature writing and the close enjoyment of natural environments is merely "recreational" and not intellectually, economically, or politically worthy of our efforts. Perhaps this activity has "spiritual value" or gives us a "sense of peace." But does it really have anything to do with the way we live in the world today? It seems to me that this question is central to the whole course of study and that we

Phrases such as “botanising in glorious freedom [...] wandering through innumerable tamarac and arbor-vitae swamps, and forests [...], rejoicing in their bound wealth and strength and beauty, climbing the trees, revelling in their flowers and fruit [...], glorying in the fresh cool beauty and charm of the bog [...] displayed in boundless profusion”, “rarest and most beautiful”, and “I was able to wander many a long wild fertile mile in the forests and bogs, free as the winds, gathering plants, and glorying in God's abounding inexhaustible spiritual beauty bread”, all show how Muir felt about nature and what nature meant to him. A key phrase that shows Muir’s attitude towards nature states, “Storms, thunderclouds, winds in the woods—were welcomed as friends”. These phrases, as well as the words mentioned above, are extremely positive and show the utmost joy Muir found in his surroundings. The long and detailed descriptions of Muir’s surroundings helps to reinforce his joy in nature. The words that Muir uses to describe nature shows that he is close to nature and feels a connection with it. These positive words also show how absolutely stunning Muir finds nature and how he finds peace and joy in the wild. All of this is also supported by one of Muir’s

Some people find things to do--paint, draw, sing, sports--and make these activities their catharsis. Some may sleep things through to get by, while others may seek psycho-spiritual calming activities such as meditation.

He emphasises on the presence of and an enveloping satisfaction through multi stimuli in nature; giving an example of a trek through a forest, and the feeling of being within the space of a clearing invoked by peripheral vision, complete with the crunching of leaves under the feet and sap smell that surrounds us through the trek.

Being able to appreciate nature is being able to separate yourself from all the possessions and materialistic ideologies that Emerson believed to plague our society. There is a perfect example of separating yourself from society and being something else entirely when Emerson said, "[i] become a transparent eye-ball. I am nothing. I see all" (511). The eye is what allows us to see, without its connection to the brain its sole purpose is not to process even what is in its view but rather simply see. The point is to step back and view things as you see them objectively not allowing what you know or have learned about what you are seeing to affect anything, but rather simply appreciating and beholding the beauty of your sight. Emerson wants the reader to understand the importance of separating ourselves on occasion and appreciating the simplistic beauty that is nature and allow ourselves to get a better understanding of both life and ourselves through untainted eyes.

As I left behind the somber forest, I now recognized an appreciation for nature that I did not realize I had. I now knew there was more to nature than just trees and animals, but also I found the

In Nature & Landscape: An Introduction to Environmental Aesthetics, Allen Carlson proposes that scientific knowledge can enhance our aesthetic appreciation of the natural world. He draws a connection between technical know-how used in the context of natural landscapes and art history or criticism in the context of conventional art forms. In either case, the viewer would find relatively more meaningful experiences of aesthetic appreciation than if one looked at a painting or landscape without any prior knowledge about it. Carlson endorses this point within his larger Natural Environmental Model, which asserts that though the environment is not entirely of our creation, it does not mean that we have to approach it without any prior understanding.