The Language of Nature

“Your breath touched my soul and I saw beyond all limits.” ~Rumi

I can almost remember the first time Nature spoke to me. I was young, so I didn’t immediately understand.  I couldn’t decipher what She was telling me. I couldn’t make sense of Her call. Nature does not sing Her song in words. Her language is a much simpler to comprehend.

In my youth I couldn’t translate the language of Nature, although She tried to speak to me. When I put my hand in Her running stream, I marveled at her caress and how the gentle force of Her flow would push my hand back but then allow it to finds its place again. I could feel Her coolness refresh my blood warmed by the effort to discover Her, and as I sipped from her chalice She demanded nothing in return. I had no idea what She was saying, but  in the refreshment came visions I had never seen and words I had never heard. I was, in my youthful exuberance, a boy in accustomed to the shallow words of human communication. I had not yet discovered the depth of discussion I would have with things not human.

From time to time, She would carry a leaf or a stick past me, and I would study them as they made their way to some place unknown. They would surrender to the flow of Her, and they would arrive at a destination of Her choosing at a time so absolutely appropriate.  They would sometimes disappear beneath her surface in the tumult of descent, but they would surface a little later unscathed and ready to continue on their journey. I often wondered what they had learned in the force of Her undertow, if anything at all. The Stream, it seemed, twisted and turned and fell and found stillness without much care for the things She carried. She was just flowing, and those things that flowed with Her would always find their way. The storms may ripple Her surface and the cold may freeze Her edges, but she would always be true to Herself while the things that flowed with her would always arrive right where they needed to be. She would never change for them, for She carried them with the same level of affection whether they could sense it or not.

While I could not yet understand her language, she pulled at me with such a beautiful gravity. Within me was a desire to walk with Her, not as the branch or the leaf, but as a human being inspired to walk paths that sometimes make no sense to the world. She stoked that desire until, one day, I had to walk within her. Unlike the leaf, I walked upstream with a human purpose, and unlike the branch I would struggle not to drown. My lot was not to surrender to the current but to walk against it. My purpose was not to see the reality of Her placid destinations. My purpose was to explore the uphill climbs and the raging rapids that would take me to Her origins. My soul wanted to be a student born to learn from Her and she, in turn, would teach.

That was the first conversation I can remember having with Nature. It came not in a word or a book, but rather in a feeling inspired in our communion. There were no passages to read or prose to recite. There was only the caress of Her breath that would set me inspired for hours. She need never whisper a promise to me for all She needed to offer was a clear view of the Sunrise. She need never swear an oath to my heart, for committed I became just sitting upon a peak gazing at Her majesty. I learned along the way that the truest words are unspoken, and the strongest binds are not those forged floating downstream but, rather, in walking against the current.

In that journey She has brought me wisdom. She has shown me the powerful presence of a bear, or a moose, or an elk when alone on a dusty trail. She has brought my heart to great heights as the Sun rises above a vast ocean.  She has touched my soul as I’ve swam with beasts normally unseen living in their watery world. She has lulled me to sleep in her subtle breezes, taught me humility in raging storms, shaken my confidence as the earth quaked around me and given me a sturdy tree on which to lean when the quaking stopped. She has awoken me with the crack of thunder, bathed me in the clearest water ever known, and taught me that often reaching the summit is not the end of the journey and that life often continues exactly where it began. 

She has, at times gently and at times roughly, led me to the depth of my own courage and determination. She has shown me where the edges of my boundaries remain, and where my actions are not in line with my desires. On shaky legs I have climbed, determined to reach my objective. In uncertainty I have come back down as my mind shouted at me that I was unable. In Her way, she showed me that the voices within and around me often only tell their own truth, and that my truth is often not the same. She has shown me the beauty of overcoming exhaustion just to hear Her sing within a waterfall.  She has led me to heights I once thought impossible just for the inspiring views they provide. She has taught me more than any professor while never speaking a single word in instruction.

Her language courses through me with every breath as I long to be entangled in Her pureness and lost in Her presence. I hear Her song as the morning songbirds inspire me to wake. I hear Her lectures as the cool mountain breeze wipes the sweat from my brow, and the scent of wildflowers fills my senses.  I hear Her words of inspiration as my body weakens before I’ve seen the summit, and felt Her embrace as I marvel at that view. I’ve felt Her love in the presence of others who have heard her calling, and who understand the language that we speak in silence.

It has proven true the adage that once you hear the voice of Nature no other language will suffice. Once you’ve touched the face of her gods the thrills of flesh become obsolete. Nature is, in Her essence, that part of us left when we die. She is that call of the wild within us all and that lullaby that puts the demons asleep. Release your worry to the wind, and let the soothing power of Her wonder keep you in awe. She is dangerous, and failure often means a lover’s demise. Yet in Her passion she shows you the best of you, and if your end is the result She led you there to that placid place on Her shores. Such a journey is our destiny, whether we want it or not.