Nature's way

Lately, I have been listening to a song written in 1970 by Randy California, lead guitarist from the group Spirit, a grossly underrated group from that era. The words "Nature's Way" float through my brain each day . . . “it's nature's way of receiving you; it's nature's way of retrieving you; it's nature's way of telling you something's wrong.”

We humans are interconnected with the natural world. Each affects the other. Nature receives us with beauty and wonder. It shares with us its clouds and mountains. We survive on its water, its land, its bounty of nourishment. Nature doesn't care what we look like or what we believe. It does care about what humans do to it, though.

This is when nature retrieves us. It retrieves us from denial, from fear, from anger and from helplessness. It opens our eyes to what we are doing to our natural world. It shows us the truth, and allows us to take action. It lets us realize that one person can make small changes to help the natural world. Please know this, and allow yourself to be retrieved by nature.

When the out-of-control fires in Canada last summer gave us dangerous air-quality levels and smoke-filled skies, nature was telling us something's wrong. When harmful algae blooms appear in Lake Erie, nature tells us that something's wrong. When a young woman told me that she recently moved to University Heights from my hometown in California "because of fire and water," nature was telling her something's wrong.

Now is the time and we human beings are here to help with compassion. It's nature's way.