Seeing God in Nature

I remember when I was a child I was so much more fascinated with the world and nature.

Everything was so exciting, everything.

Now it's like instead of everything being white, it's more like a shade of grey.

Things are not as new as they used to be. The world is not as new. I can say "been there, done that" for so many things.

But when I was a child, the snow falling in winter was like Jesus' second coming! lol

Seeing my cat have kittens was the most amazing experience ever!

Sledding, ice skating, climbing trees... it was all so incredibly exciting!

I had such a zest for life, a liveliness, that seemed to have gotten lost along the way.

As we all get older it happens to all of us.

We get the crap kicked out of us it would seem, by life, people, situations, and life doesn't seem as fun as it did when we were young.

It is not innocent anymore. Our eyes are opened to the evil all around us. We see people for who they are and we don't like what we see.

We see corruption and people being hurt and people suffering.

And we can't go back to being blind like we were as kids, though how much would we all want to!

That is why people drink or do drugs I think, to get back to that "ignorance is bliss" phase we had when we were kids. To just forget the world and it's pain if even for just an hour.

We all have our drug of choice. None of us is any better then the next person. We all hide from this horrible truth in something.

We all wish we could get back to when life was so simple, so clean, so easy, so carefree.

Before the bills, before the stress, before work and deadlines and bosses.

For me, I would like to get back to when there was just me and nature.

There was a section of woods behind my apartments that I had so much fun exploring when I was 10 in Blair, Nebraska.

I remember one time seeing a fox running through the woods and I thought that was the coolest thing I had ever seen!

It probably is still to this day the coolest thing I have ever seen. How gracefully and elegantly it ran. It's huge bushy tail dashing through the forest.

I remember sneaking out at night to see my woods at night. The lightning bugs covered the trees like little natural green Christmas lights!

I wrote a Haiku about it in college, "The lightning bugs illumine the dark forest magically."

It really was quite magical!

And the pond I would sit by and watch the frogs come up or sit on lily pads.

The forts I would make with my friend out of branches.

And one of my friends and I literally found some vines to swing from across this creek in my back yard. Yes, like Tarzan.

It was so exciting to be in and around wild nature!

We don't have that here in California. At least you have to search long and hard for it.

But I see God in nature very much! Always have. After all it is HIS CREATION.

And I am so excited, so passionate, so ready, to have more experiences discovering nature when I move to Australia in a couple weeks!

I plan to rent a car when I get there, and I'm going on a safari! I actually have never seen kangaroos in person in my life! So that will be exciting.

I have walked through rain forests in Washington and Alaska and Hawaii, but the hikes were quite brief. I want to spend DAYS hiking in rain forests in Australia!

And may God protect me from the snakes lol.

But I can't wait to find God in nature again as I did as a child! :)

May God show me Himself in Australia, more then He ever has before.

Onto another big adventure! And I am so excited! :)