nature is my church

Yesterday I paid a visit to my church, my temple, my synagogue, my mosque at whose altar I worship. “Nature is my church” is a lovely phrase that came from a Canadian man who left the high-density, vertical city of Vancouver to live in a log cabin on a semi-secluded island with forest and beaches, one of the southern Gulf Islands situated between mainland British Columbia and Vancouver Island. One day I will visit that entire region, but for now – and while we’re still in lockdown – I can walk ten minutes from my flat to a beautiful nature spot.

IMG_9180

Towering trees and whispering grasses.

IMG_9196

IMG_9192

The weather was perfect yesterday: sunny, a cool breeze and 19°C (66°F). Too beautiful to stay indoors! In fact, I’ve observed a funny thing: my French colleagues daren’t go outside during this lockdown, whereas me and my non-French friends go out every single day. Why is this? Because the French view their government as a “nanny state” and, like obedient children, follow its strict rules and regulations re COVID?

IMG_9188

I can’t tell you how restorative it was to sit on a log – tranquil and undisturbed – while listening to the birdsong, looking up at the blue sky and the trees all around, and feeling the sun on my skin. I will return to this same place later today. There’s a term for this: forest bathing, and it’s true!

IMG_9176

But this could be the last moment of feeling tranquil and undisturbed. The coming months and years look very grim indeed. The aftermath of COVID-19 is that the European Union is staring at its worst economic recession ever.

IMG_9198

IMG_9197

Our days of gliding serenely on the pond are over. Am I being overly-pessimistic? Only time will tell.

IMG_9203

3 thoughts on “nature is my church

  1. Beautiful..what park? In re Nature is my park, you might want to add to that what Tom Paine wrote in The Age of Reason….My MInd is my Temple…

    • Hi Sherman. I don’t really want to name the park coz I prefer to keep my whereabouts confidential. My mind is my temple sounds like a wonderful thing. However, I’d be afraid to look into the minds of many people; there are so many warped-minded weirdos in the world that the words “age of reason” and “my mind is my temple” surely cannot apply!

      • Understand your need for privacy…As for Paine, maybe not for you, but resonates for me all the time. Paine also wrote of Biblical Revelation….(paraphrasing)…the first time it is revelation, after that it is all hearsay.

Leave a Reply to Sherman M. Kaplan Cancel reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s