The School of Nature

A soul wandering in the wilderness

Magic happens when you dare to say goodbye to your comfort zone and hit the road. You come across things unknown — you hear the music unheard — you discover the beauty hidden from your very city-eyes.

All you need is to find some time to start your journey to the destination undefined. Leave the brick-walls and conditioned-air just for a day and see what happens under the sun.

The Journey Begins

When you take the bus, you don’t know your destination. But you have no fear of being lost — because you want to get lost and immerse in places unexplored.

You want to see how everything is working and syncing with one another.

The bus starts its way forward, and your curiosities rock. You set your eyes outside to have some green. Soon you become overwhelmed as the bus leaves the concrete-city.

Maybe you have companions with you, or you are just alone wandering and experimenting with this joyous adventure. A gentle breeze touches your cheek, and you start to blush. Putting all your worldly-thoughts aside, you feel relaxed — being so close to yourself.

Time flies.

While the air becomes busy playing with your unruly hair, your eyes dive into the green and yellow outside. And you feel that the process of becoming young starts now.

You stop the bus and hit the muddy road.

The Beauty of Green and Yellow

You are walking now. A camera is hanging from your shoulder, though you hardly use it. You have two powerful eyes to see and appreciate everything around you.

While you are in the midst of a jungle of beauty, suddenly, you stop to put off your shoes. You allow your feet to connect to mother earth. Oh, it feels soft, cold, and intense.

You close your eyes, stand straight, face up, spread your hands, and take a deep breath. For the first time in many days, you are living a life.

One deep breath…two …and then…three.

You feel relaxed now — no worry about anything. It’s just you and nature all around, no depression, past, or future in between.

It’s your life — it’s your feelings — you understand it all.

You open your eyes and observe the mustard plants, grass, green cornfields, and the life dancing here in the field. Bees are humming, birds are chirping, and flies are giving you a guard of honor.

You click and capture the moment with ecstasy. Then start walking again.

The Birds and Their World

You saw a few herons in some distance. You become conscious and go silently ahead to take a closer look. Husss! No sound. Go slowly, gently, without interrupting the serenity of nature.

When you carefully go forward, you found a pond-like place where herons and kingfishers are arguing about their fair shares of fish.

You make absolutely no sound and take your camera into action like a sharp sniper. Then you silently level yourself to the ground and observe their movements. How lovely these white birds are.

What are they talking about? What is going on in their tiny little minds? Do they love the life they got to carry on? Do they become frustrated like us sometimes? Who gives them courage? Who guides them when they are in distress?

You start thinking of these lovely questions and comparing your life with the white herons in front of you. And finally, you conclude that you are not the center of everything and your existence doesn’t matter much. You and the herons are on the same plate of time.

Your life, thinking, distress, love, hatred, fun, joy, happiness, nothing matters in reality. The vast parade of life goes on. The wholeness doesn’t count anyone, as it only cares about the process.

It’s nature.

At a distance, you see three herons having a meeting about something. You sit quietly and take a photo of that great conversation. Will they end the discussion with an agreement? Who knows?

The terrific combination of green and white leave you in amazement. You become overwhelmed with the beauty of it. It becomes a part of long-term memory.

The Children of Nature

Something happens, and the birds fly away. With curiosity, you start to move on. You dissect the corn and mustard fields and go ahead toward the unknown.

The sun is up there.

A warm and lovely atmosphere all around. You see a big tree in the field. Now you have a destination. You want to rest for a while under its shadow. You want nature’s shelter.

On the way, you find some little boys coming towards you. You wonder, who are they? Are they the children of nature?

They look rebellious, stubborn, and their hands are muddy. They frown upon you. You ask them who they are and what things they do.

They show you a pot full of live fish.

After having a glimpse, your heart leaps up with joy. You talk to them and walk a few steps side by side. You become curious about their life.

For a few moments, you return to your childhood days. It fills your heart with innocence and joy.

The Lake of Happenings

You spend the whole day exploring the wilderness. The fields plants, insects, flies, bees, birds, flowers, breeze, and more — everything fills your heart with happiness and excitement. You discover that a day is enough time to explore a thousand things.

In the afternoon, on your way back, you find a lake of happenings peeping through a jungle. Gathering some courage, you enter the bush to amaze yourself.

Some waterlilies find you. They smile at you — and you smile back. You see some ducks swimming and talking to each other.

Approaching silently, you take a few photos of them.

You sit quietly and listen to the lives happening around you. The time stands still.

You can hear everything — even the fall of a dry leaf from the trees. You are blown away by the tranquility of nature. The atmosphere expands you with every moment you spend by the side of this lake.

You see the ducks playing, the kingfisher hunting, the waterlilies nodding, the robins singing, the trees breathing, and all.

Now you know that life is a larger canvas where you can paint and play with all the colors imaginable.

Back to the Start

After spending a day in the school of nature, when you get back to your so-called normal life — within a few days, you begin to feel the calling again.

All you need is to listen to your inner call for the wilderness — because you know that magic happens when you dare to say goodbye to your comfort zone and hit the road.

You come across things unknown — you hear the music unheard, and you discover the beauty hidden from your very city-eyes.

The whole world is waiting for you outside. What are you doing in your boring cubicle?

Take a break.

Explore. Enjoy. Live.

*All the photos used in this post were taken by the author. He reserves the rights to all these images.

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