Today I sat at the beach wondering what I was doing here. Today I sat on the grass by an empty water bottle; behind me a chair; some yards away a bin; further ahead on the azure sea- ships. Today I sat on a manmade beach, with sand imported from another country. A beach made by machines, and man. A beach where one can turn around and see the carpark; or a food court. Why not? It's convenient. So convenient it's stuffed with people; it's seams are splitting...with people. People walking on paved roads, pulling out a laptop. People from the city.

Ah, the city. Who every thought up a high rise building? You know how people say 'living in a cardboard box?' We do live in a box; just not a cardboard one. We live in a metallic, occassionally concrete box, with a one metre radius to move about in. In a building, that's your space. In a car... whoever thought of a car? The inside is one metre in length and breath, and five people sit inside it. And it makes noises. And produces the most filthy, vile smells. Even in a city with trees, does one ever see a tree without a building in a background?

Somehow the city seems to me all together vile, disgusting, pointless. I walked around my house the past few days for about an hour each time. Trees and plants enough, but somehow every minute at least two cars would whizz on by. A stifling feeling; like being crushed and squeezed like a lemon for lemonade... by something. Technology, maybe. You feel like screaming; desiring, no aching to get out of here.

In that moment, I wished with a fervour unbeknownst to be before this. How I longed for an area untainted by the modern inventions. Perhaps a field or beach in Australia or new Zealand, a gentle breeze ruffling the light greenish brown grass, and creating soft ripples on azure, perfect blue lakewater. Glaciers lightly decorating the background, and the gentle laughter of passing birds. Not a high rise building in sight, nor a car or vehicle.

That is nature.

I don't know why I have such a strong affliction to nature. Maybe it's because since I was a baby my parents took me to Australia many times, to the blue mountains and the gentle array of nature that lies there. Heck, I even took my first steps in Australia.

Or maybe not. Perhaps all of us have a heart born for the beauty that mother nature bestows upon us. It stands to reason. We stand in mother nature's glory and we feel peace. Maybe we weren't born for the city, and all of us, in heart, are really country bumpkins.

I don't know.
Dingle County, Ireland. Looks professional, doesn't it? Taken with our own sony camera.
Blackcomb mountain, Whistler BC. Sitting at the edge of a ski run wating for 7th heaven to open.

That's nature.

~fin~