NATURE

Nature has always been man’s best friend since the beginning of time and people have been deriving immense pleasure from it. Great poets like Keats, Woodsworth, Coleridge, Frost got their inspiration for poetry from nature. Elements of nature always find their way into poetry, novels, songs, movies, art etc. However, we who claim to be the busiest of all generations are oblivious of the wonders of nature. 

I am taking nature as today’s topic for a number of reasons. The society we live in today is infected with all kinds of viruses such as alcohol, drugs, violence, indecent assaults, corruption, to name a few. Over population, poor living conditions, divorce, inefficiency of the government bodies, lack of recreational facilities are mostly pointed out and blamed for this. I often wonder why we have this tendency to point our fingers at someone whenever something goes wrong even if we know we are at fault.

Now let’s get into the point. When we are all stressed up and fed up of life because of the above mentioned reasons do we really have to turn to drugs, alcohol or violence? Should hectic days at work, conflicts with bosses or colleagues, deadlines to meet  make us abusive at work as well as at home hurting the ones we love and should protect most?  Jobs are hard to find in today’s economy but does it give us the right to steal, take bribe, sell drugs or take innocent people’s lives? When there are problems at home do we have to get help from gangs and participate in their activities as if it’s the only people who could help ease our pain? Lack of recreational facilities enjoyed by people who are more privileged than us is not a reason for us to spend our leisure time on roads doing nothing except assaulting innocent people. Don’t you agree?

This is where nature comes in. I strongly believe that we can seek solace from nature when our days and nights are filled with worry and stress and when life seems bleak. Don’t you think sitting alone or with friends in a beach, listening to the soft music of the waves crashing against the shore as the cool breeze calms us down would help us to forget all our problems? I should say it would. Watching the sunrise and listening to the singing of birds early in the morning would give that energy boost we need to start a long day.  Instead of allowing stress to take a toll on our work can’t we learn stress reducing techniques? Watching the sunset with its amazing colours would definitely rejuvenate our senses and relax our troubled minds helping us to deal with our problems better and prevent us from making hasty decisions. 

It’s not necessary to get into bad habits simply because we believe that we lack leisure facilities. Nature has provided us with a great number of resources that we can utilize in order to fill our leisure time or even to build a career. We don’t have to get ourselves into trouble by acting irrational. The sky, the ocean, the trees, the flowers, the animals, the insects etc can be the subjects of our artistic creations like poetry, music and novels. Surfing, swimming, jet skiing and other water sports can be undertaken by those among us who enjoy sports. The curious ones who like to observe and enjoy wonderful sights can go snorkeling, diving or pursue an activity like bird watching. Photography is a wonderful way of capturing these magnificent sights of nature and there are many other such activities that we can do. Yes, many of these activities can even be taken as a profession so won’t it be better and wiser if we found healthy and responsible ways of dealing with our problems and turning towards activities that we can undertake with the resources readily available to us like our ancestors did rather than ruining our lives and creating chaos in the society.

I remember the days when my friends and I spent time at the beach watching the sunset and admiring the nature after a stressful day at work. Believe me when I say it never failed to relax us and to bring a smile on our faces taking all our troubles miles away from us. Try this even if you are not a nature lover and let nature work its magic on you.