Nature is a Gift
In recent
decades we have become particularly aware of the crucial importance of
our relationship with nature. As long as we relate to the trees, the
rivers, the mountains, the fields, and the oceans as properties to be
manipulated by us according to our real or fabricated needs, nature
remains opaque and does not reveal to us its true being. When we relate
to a tree as nothing more than a potential chair, it cannot speak much
to us about growth. When a river is only a dumping place for our
industrial wastes, it no longer informs us about movement. And when we
relate to a flower as nothing more than a model for a plastic
decoration, the flower loses its power to reveal to us the simple beauty
of life. When we relate to nature primarily as property to be used, it
becomes opaque, and this opaqueness is manifested in our society as
pollution. The dirty rivers, the smog-filled skies, the strip-mined
hills, and the ravaged woods are sad signs of our false relationship
with nature.
Our
difficult and very urgent task is to accept the truth that nature is not
primarily a property to be possessed, but a gift to be received with
admiration and gratitude. Only when we make a deep bow to the rivers,
oceans, hills, and mountains that offer us a home, only then can they
become transparent and reveal to us their real meaning.
Henri Nouwen
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