On Nature and Being

Musings from a few days back...

In our modern society few things remain that leave us feeling small and insignificant. As I gaze up at the mountains dotting the northern Tanzanian landscape with peaks hidden behind the delicate puff of a cloud I can't help but feel just that. We're on a road cut through nature. A natural world that has created things more beautiful than any human being could accurately capture or reproduce. I think back to last week as I watched the Zambezi River spill over a cliff setting one of the most spectacular scenes of the natural world. I think of the double rainbows created by the play of light off the mist that permeated the air around them. Such beauty is foreign to our ways of life. Seeing them reminds us or atleast me of my insignificance in the grand scheme of things. It's comforting though in a way. The clouds will continue to cover mountains without admiration, the river would continue to run without our need of it, and the rainbow would not relinquish an ounce of its beauty if no one watched. So to I will continue on, so will we all continue on regardless of our apparent importance or impact. But there's more to it. Unlike the river, the rainbow, or the mountain, our time here is fleeting. Nature reminds me that regardless of who sees, who knows, or who appreciates I should continue to be who I am in pursuit of who I am to become. Nature doesn't change for anyone but itself, nor should we.