Two Sides Of The Same Coin.

Two Sides Of The Same Coin.

It was a gray November day.

The rain was coming down in a light drizzle.

We needed the rain.

It had been a dry few years around here.

The rivers, lakes and mountains were drying up.

The earth was soaking up the water like a dried up sponge.

The farmers were in rough shape.

They had been praying for rain.

They had been praying for snow.

It always seemed weird to me that the golf courses and our big green lawns got water before the lakes, rivers, mountains and farmers did.

They said we were going through a drought.

We lived in a desert.

But if you went a little west, you saw mountains and forest.

Hundreds of miles of forest.

Head east though, and you’ll see the desert stretching out hundreds of miles.

Keep on going west,

through the forest,

and you’ll hit an ocean.

Waterfalls were everywhere in the mountains and forest.

We didn’t have to drive that far to see them.

And some of them were worth seeing.

There were hot springs too.

We could soak our sore bones in naturally hot water from our earth.

Some people would soak naked.

I could never relax in the hot water when there were naked ladies around.

But nakedness is just another beautiful sight from nature.

A beautiful view.

Just like the mountains, lakes, forest and rivers that we loved the stop and stare at.

We weren’t much different than them.

Just a little louder and busier.

We don’t view ourselves as beautiful as the sights worth seeing in nature.

But that’s where we came from.

We are animals.

Just a little more advanced.

We can stop and appreciate the beauty of a sunsetting on a perfect summer evening

But if you stopped and stared at a beautiful woman,

Well,

People didn’t like that as much.

They would look at you as a pig.

Another thirsty male.

or

Another lady with daddy issues,

who was showing too much skin.

But we are the stars.

We are the lakes and rivers.

We are the mountains.

We are the rising and setting of the sun.

We are a creek running through a meadow on a sunny spring day.

Is it just our egos that make us think and feel like we are so separated from the nature around us?

That we are different from it?

That we are an observer of the art and not part of it?

There is art in nature isn’t there?

Similar thoughts and feelings arise in us when looking at a painting or listening to a beautiful piece of music,

as if we were looking at something beautiful in nature.

Holding a newborn baby has art in it.

Real beauty.

The beauty of us

And the beauty of nature.

Don’t get me wrong,

There are some horrible things about us

But,

then again,

there are horrible things about nature too.

Super volcanoes.

Murder.

Earthquakes.

Rape.

A tsunami.

Government.

An ice age.

War.

Drought.

Golf courses.

Disease.

Lies.

Tornadoes.

Conservation camps.

There are destructive qualities to nature

And

There are destructive qualities to ourselves.

Two sides of the same coin.

There is poison in nature

But there is also water and food.

There is poison in us

But,

There is also love.

There is sunlight

But,

There is also a dark night sky.

In us,

There is light

But,

There is also darkness.

Fire can burn everything down.

But it can also be a tool.

A tool for light and warmth

and a tool to cook.

Without learning to master fire,

Well,

we might not be here.

Learn to master your own fire within you.

Do not let it burn you up.

Do not let it burn others.

Remember this.

Remember the light and the darkness out there

And remember the light and the darkness in here.

Don’t just see the beauty in nature

And not see the beauty in us.

Don’t just see the darkness in us,

without seeing the beauty of the world.

Understand both.

Understand we aren’t that different from the setting sun

And we aren’t that different from the super volcano.

We are,

in fact,

the same.

-C.H.