I GO TO NATURE
By Uriah J. Fields

Nature is the most  total manifestation of God
and existence;
She is God's Most Signifiant Other, His wife and
the first fruit of Her womb;
She consists of galaxies and solar systems, planets
and heavens;
The earth with vegetation, including plants, grass and
trees;
Fowls, including birds, chickens and peafowls:
Animals, including man, the masterpiece of Creation -
nature's brainchild - and other mammals, both  on
land and in the sea;
Insects, reptiles, fish, bees and a host of other
named and unnamed, known and unknown species;
The heavens, ever so beautiful, majestic and vast,
bedecked with stars, the moon and the sun, clouds,
rain and snow;
And invisible forces, including angels and the wind
that sometimes move with hurricane velocity, sound
waves and extrasensory perception telepathically
transmitted.
It is no wonder the Psalmist exclaimed, "The Heavens
declare the glory of God."
Nature is the ultimate phenomenon, infinite, partly
known, partly unknown and partly unknowable to
that part of her called humanity.
She is pure reality, yet a mystery;
Although we humans are aware of our aspectual
ramification and connection with and embodiment in her
essence we, nevertheless, stand in awe of her power
as we ackowledge her comprehensiveness and
incomprehensibleness.
We delight in the realms of meaning she proffers us;
However great the efforts we make to avoid nature's
presence we cannot, except for, perhaps fleeting
moments or during our absent-mindness. But even then
nature is present. We interface her in numerous ways
such as in the irising and setting of the sun, listening
to birds sing, a gentle breeze and in the awareness
we have of ourselves. We cannot escape from nature.
We are nature's soul, her beloved and, in a certain
way, her chief beneficiary and most gifted enhancer
on the earth.
Much too  often we resist nature and attempt to
manipulate her maifestations. This conduct invariably
brings to us suffering and human misery. There seems
to be a correlation between man's attempt to manpulate
nature and the amount of despair he experiences. He
has not as yet learned that Mother Nature knows best.
Joyce Kilmer understood this truth when he said,
"Poems are made by fools like me, but only God
can make a tree." What is salvation but being in
harmony with nature, moving with her rhythm and
flowing with her current. Let this become the axiom
that directs your livingness: "Don't swim, float."
Nature is my mother, including and beyond Mother
Earth. Nature is my father provide, protector and
nurturer; Nature is my good life, all that makes life
good, iincluding air, water and food.
I go to nature and abide with her for long periods
of time. I know she is always present,  but there
are times when I am distanced from her and indifferent
toward her. Sometimes I experience her as being
wrafthful and uncaring. These moments, however, are
usually brief, having come to pass not to stay.
I have learned much about nature's ways and
resourecefulness. I delight in nature,
I go to naure...
When I want to be close to God and commune with HIm,
I go to nature;
When I am moved to silence and quietness, comtemplation,
meditation and prayer,
I go to nature;
When I desire rapt sensuousness and beauty par excellence,
I go to nature;"
When I want to be touched in a powerful way and yet
with tendernesss, hear birds sing, see the antelope gaze
and graze, inhale fragances from flower blossoms, look at the snow
covered mountain peaks and the golden
valleys and feel the scintillating breeze.
I go to nature;
When I want added strength for my journey, fresh
inspriation and a deepening understanding of my
relationship to the innumerable components of the
Gestalt that includes all, even the Creator.
I go to nature.
And now, in the autumn of my life, after havng seen
many risings and settings of the sun and new moons,
I go to natrue often, more often now than ever before,
because now I have developed a nature-consciousness.
I know that nature is my Source.
So, friend, I offer to you my prescription for entering
Paradise in the here and now; Go to nature, not once
or twice, but do it perpetually. Allow nature  to lift your burdens,
restore you to good health or keep you healthy,
surprise you with joy and give you peace.
Let nature help you with self-definition, self-love and selfhood.
Let nature be that  matrix where you creatively express
yourself, grow and enjoy. For all these things
and even more can be yours  when you go to nature.
Once again I declare with enthusiasm and conviction,
I go to nature for knowledge, enlightenment, healing,
gratification and communion. I go to nature
whenever I feel the spirit moving in my nature-loving center.
I am a nature person.
When my autumn has passed and my winter has come,
I  will then go to nature and remain there for all eternity.
But until then, even though I will leave nature from
time to time insofar as my awareness and consciousness
of nature's presence are concerned, I will consistently
and frequently go to nature.
Going to nature makes my life worth living and my
journey sweet.
I go to nature.

Copyright 1995 and 2017 by Uriah J. Fields
To listen to the author recite this poem visit
http://facebook.com/uriah.j.fields