Inklings 2016

ature is our greatest teacher. From the Gobi desert to the Amazon

Rainforest, the world is constantly absorbing the information and

wisdom around it. I always saw nature as a great teacher, but I didn’t

understand the major role we play in nature and the all-encompassing

role nature plays with us. Just a week ago, and for just a week in the

Everglades, nature showed me the oneness of everything. It showed me

the role humans play in the circle of life. We are definitely a part of that

same circle, not above it.

Nature did not showme Nirvana, or transformme into the next

incarnation of the Buddha: I am no Dalai Lama, but being subject to the

grand power of the Everglades led me to see that I, and all people, are

pawns in the game of nature. To think we are above nature is deny our

role as humans. The final day of paddling changed my perspective of the

entire trip. The weather looked abysmal. Despite our bubbly yellow rain

jackets, my group was soaked to the bone. I was feeling poorly and being

waterlogged led to a full blown fever. I could barely keep awake, let alone

paddle. However, one of the great lessons I gleaned from nature was

to find the will to dig deep. I saw it in my crew. I saw it in every animal

fighting for survival. I saw it in the entire ecosystem, continuing to live

whilst deforestation ravages the world’s wildlife. In a particularly strong

storm swell, I found myself paddling on a large, open bay, surrounded by

lush mangroves.Ten feet to my right - a quick glimpse followed by more

flashes -I saw something unknown pop out of the water. I kept my head

planted to the right, feeling wet, sick, cold. Then I witnessed a pod of

dolphins leaping, chasing, and playing around our canoes. I felt a sense

of beauty and wonder for nature as well as a respect for its impact on my

sense of well being.

Waking up the next morning at basecamp, I looked at myself in the

mirror. I had not changed. I still had the same values, the same traits and

traditions. I did, however, recognize myself as a part of the bigger picture.

I saw, and continue to see, myself, and all people, as a branch in the tree

of life. I sawmy insignificance as the light of a candle, bright and full of

energy, but with an easy breath I could be snuffed out. This feeling paired

with the new notion of oneness that I felt, the way I could see myself as a

small, but existing part of the circle of life and a part of the world.

Nature was no conventional teacher, for my case it turned out to be

quite the opposite. For the rest of my life I can continue to understand

and reflect on how to live my life, however unimportant, in a meaningful

and ethical way. I was shown a sliver of my part in the world, but nature

showed me more of my part for the entire world, the complete and

connected life of nature. For myself, I was not looking for Nirvana, and I

didn’t quite make it to that perfect completion and oneness anyway. But I

did see myself as a part of something bigger, as something I could reflect

on for the rest of my life.

Hanging

Francisco Cabrera (Digital Photograph)

Eli Horgan