Comfort #33 Comfort of living with Nature’s cycles

When we lived off-grid in a tiny house in the middle of 43 acres of woods, I became acutely aware of Nature and Her seasons and cycles.

From my large city upbringing, surrounded by neighborhoods and concrete and steel, I became attuned to the softness and caresses of Nature’s gentle changes.

Most especially noticeable, were the subtle scents of delicate seasonal flowers.

These scents changed monthly as new blooms appeared.

I loved discovering their unique shapes and colors.

The largeness and immensity of high winds in sixty-foot trees was overwhelming in its majesty as storms built up.

The scents in the air would change as the storm began its slow, unstoppable, invincible, persuasive motion into our area.

It had a build-up phase and a draining-off phase as the motion dissipated in its own time.

We were helpless in the face of such immense power.

We could witness, but not affect, any part of this cycle.

A quieter sequence was the progression of light down into the valley from one side in the morning. It moved up the same side as the sun moved overhead to the other side of the valley.

We watched the sun-line in its cycle as we were flooded with light during the day and watched the beautiful dusk, and then dark, move in for its cycle.

The sounds of the day and of the night comforted us in their cycle.

In the heat of summer, we would hear dragonflies as they buzzed across our meadow.

Hummingbirds had a distinctive and powerful whrr as they battled around the feeders.

Each night, the soft sounds of bats would float across the meadow as they ate their weight in insects.

The sound of the whippoorwill and coyotes howling from ridges, and owls answering across the forest had their own frequencies and rhythm.

The night hosted different scents.

The moonlight moved across the meadow softly and irrevocably, hidden from time to time by cloudy night skies.

The quiet of the deer and the playful spiraling of the vultures as they followed thermals in the sky became a part of the rhythm of our life, as did many other aspects of Nature and Her cycles.

© 2024 Kathryn Hardage 

http://www.shareinspirationandpeace.com