Readings : The Book Of Nature

Just shy of spring, the weather seems conducive for our flowering magnolias both Star and Saucer. The Star popped a few flowers last week and each day more and more open up but the saucer magnolia, though heavy with buds for a while, had its first flowers just open up this morning.

A man of the soil, I'm a disciple of the plant kingdom, and I read from the Book of Nature as I'm able. This book is not written of words to be worshiped but rather to be the subject of observation of plants growing and how they react to weather and ground conditions they must live in.

Funny how Man seems to take Nature for granted but, rather hoops and hollers about scripture, fighting about who's scripture is paramount, who's God is omnipotent, who's disciples are the chosen ones. All the while, Nature does what it has done for billions of years, it plods on producing flowers which when pollinated produce seeds that starts the cycle over again if growing conditions are favorable. If not favorable, some seeds remain dormant until conditions change. By chance, some species go extinct while new adaptations survive in this process of life.

Man, with all his belief in Gods, is not immune to the forces of Nature which engulfs us all. Yes, it is important to look at and learn to appreciate the cycle of life we are immersed in. As important as Man thinks he is as a species, we are just some off shoot in "The Kingdom of Nature" who have the capabilities to think and reason overtly, in stead of most plants, which do it covertly. In the end, put your money on that which has lasted billions of years, in stead of, mere millions of years. Man's problem is : he has the ability to eradicate all life on Earth, even our Gods, by nuclear contamination and the Genie is but a cork away.

Ronald C. Downie