Nature Experience - Erin Comerford

After being introduced to our Noland Trail walk as a class, we were given the opportunity to explore on our own and really see what this place had to offer for us as we walked. So I went and walked around for a little bit with two other people. We were being observant of the different things around us and pointing out things to each other that we may not have noticed on our own. But then we got to a stopping point and we each chose to sit down in our own space and have some quiet time to just reflect. I chose to sit down on an old tree stump and look out at Lake Maury. When I first sat down, I had a song stuck in my head. The one line that kept coming up was "This is the promise I've made, I will be with you always". This is part of a song called Safe by Phil Wickham. I was thinking about how true this statement is, that God will be with you always. He really is, because he is in everything, everywhere. I can see him in the way that the leaves fall, in the stillness of the water in the lake, in the intricacies of tree next to me, and in the intricacies of who I am. Any time I spend out in nature, I can't help but be thankful to the one who has created every part of it. To me, this is God's way of connecting all of his creation, both humans and the environment. A lot of times, people forget that we are all a part of this world, not just the humans, but also all of the animals and plants and even the smallest of organisms too, we all contribute to each other. When Lane talks about understanding sacred place and says that sacred place can be tred upon without being entered, I can't help but enter it every time because we are all technically a part of it. I do understand though that you must be in the right mindset to enter the place because (as mentioned in my last post) your mind can be clouded even when you are in nature for you to be able to receive it. Once you can uncloud yourself though, I feel that you can't help but enter into the beauty that nature has to offer!