As I sit here, I find myself glancing out my window... and what I see stirs such emotions that I can barely find the words to express them. The natural world has always brought a kind of feeling to me... a kind of yearning which I don't understand. When I see the mists of dawn descending from high mountains... or golden trees against the dark backdrop of the overcast sky.... I wonder about what it is I feel. It goes beyond a mere appreciation of beauty. It it perhaps more accurately described as sheer awe.

When I ponder the origins of such feelings, I wonder if it is not perhaps related to the fact that as a being of nature, evolutionarily speaking, nature is where I came from, and in a sense, my mind should feel a sense of belonging to it. Perhaps my life in an urban environment has left a kind of void in my life, this world which human beings has created for itself can never satiate the cravings of the soul.

On the other hand, however, I often wonder if I am not in a minority among human beings. Most individuals with whom I have contact seem to posses a kind of apathy towards nature... they do not seem to take the time to admire that which surrounds them every day, and because of that, I feel apart from them in a way.

Are these feelings part of what it means to be human? Perhaps what I see in nature is an ideal. I see perfection.. beauty above all other beauty, and as such I have a glimpse of that absolute truth which secretly all human beings crave. It is strange in a way, I have never been a religious person, but what I see when I glance at such perfection is beyond words... what I feel is a sense of spirituality far more powerful than any I have felt before.

Such beautiful words SA, I have the same feelings as you.

:cry: beautiful, just beautiful :nopity: :nopity: :nopity:

I am glad that you feel the same way I watch, because that means you understand.

I think as human beings we tend to forget how close we are to this universe. All things are interconnected. When the universe came into existence, all matter and energy that ever was and ever will be came into existence with it. That very matter and energy, of which the galaxies and stars are made of, also composes us and all of life. It is important, I think, for us to remember that.

I apologize for the rather lengthy interval between posts.

No need to apologize.
I also think that your "Yearning for the Unattinable" is rythmiclay written giving that flowing feeling. Very powerful. I feel very much the same way you do when I am deep in the woods.

I tell you what dude living in Colorado has given me a profound ability to trust and love my homeland. I love getting that glowing sensation when your 18 miles from your car and your above tree line kicken it with your homies just thinkin and not talk too much. When giving respect to life you will recieve respect back. I find this to be a very warming effect to the soul.


(*3/\{3,
Austin

perhaps some just do not have the time to stand and stare for a while and drink it all in.Theres something wonderful and so powerful about this world we live in the natural beauty offset with so much power from mother nature.

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I believe you put such feelings very eloquently.

I have had very similar--very, very similar feelings triggered by nature since at least 2 years old.

I have some theories about them but I need to check and see which forum this thread is in before replying at that level! LOL.

Thanks for the memories your post triggered. Many warm ones.

Interestingly, I can see 100's of Chinese people crossing at a busy intersection in a super crowded Asian city--and feel very similar feelings.

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I forget. Was it Augustine who first mentioned mankind being created with a God-shaped hole within?

In any case, I personally am convinced that such yearnings are for fellowship--to walk in The Garden again with THE ONE WHO Created all such.

The CREATION IS SOOOOOOOOO INTENSELY SOMETHING . . . BEYOND BEAUTIFUL AND MAJESTIC AND COMPLEX AND . . . AND . . . AND . . . that I think we at least instinctually infer that

GIVEN that Creation can trigger such yearnings . . . what would it be like to sit on DADDY CREATOR'S LAP . . . to hear Him talk about His Creation . . . to nestle into HIS INFINITY AND BEAUTY. . . and especially to hear Him talk about His creating His most beloved creation . . . mankind . . . and especially about this particular most beloved creation example . . . me.

I was surprised to learn recently that whenever Christian men are polled about what they most want to experience in Heaven . . . it's to sit on Daddy's lap.

And, sometimes, I think that yearning is a 'designed-in' lack which keeps motivating us to SEEK HIM FIRST AND FOREMOST until we are SATISFIED IN HIM.

Still growing toward that goal, myself.

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Just drove up to Silverton this Saturday with a friend from Missouri.

Great little drive from Durango to Silverton. On up to Ouray would have been better but no time for that. Wish could have been earlier when the aspens were still yellow. But it was still a beautiful trip.

SA: What beautiful prose! I feel that way on a daily basis. I do. Right now the trees are turning brilliant shades of orange, yellow and red. And each day I am in awe of God's ability to "paint" such a picture. Being an artist, I sometimes pull off the road to just try to figure out how to capture the color. Silly me. I can't, but will keep on pursuing it nonetheless. I feel the same way when I see one of my Arizona sunsets or a beautiful secluded brook in the woods. Nature is my escape from the ugliness of day to day doldrums. And the night time sky is my party.:D

I live not too far off from Ouray and Ridgway Aslan, I have hiked a great deal on the San Juan Range and summited the Uncompagre last year. Excelent geography in which the soul is rejuniveated by its beauty. If you ever get a chance in the winter go see the Ouray Ice climbing fest right up there in the Box Canyon Falls. (Another breath taking deep crevice carved out by the expansion of ice and the de-expansion and roaring falls.) Sometimes, believe it or not you get a little numb to the beauty here in Colorado and it becoms an everyday sight. But when the fall comes in and paints up the leves everything seems to be rejuvinated.

latas,
Austin

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THANKS for the info.

Would like to get up that way. Silverton is about 2 hours. Ouray must be another hour from Silverton? Daunting in winter. Will see. Love the area.

Haven't backpacked in over 20 years. Bones and skin like very soft sleeping these days! LOL.

Thanks.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread topic. LOL.

What is is atainiable by man and God? I would like to say anything we put our minds to. I like to think of the movie "Back to the Future" Somebody said in the movie "McFly, you can do anything you want, just put your mind to it" I think of this when I have a hard time figuring out a problem.

-Austin

Supreme Acolyte, I'm speechless..... :blush3:

Hugs...

Sincerely,

a BLU nite SKY :cat: :cat: :cat: I luv me kitties!

I apologize for bringing this thread back from the dead... but I feel as if I must add something...

Lately I have been consumed by these thoughts; this reverence for the seemingly paradoxical order life embodies. It is as if somehow... this feeling... as if it embodies something I can almost grasp. It's difficult for me to explain... but what I feel now is... it's as if I will spend my whole life seeking the source if this feeling, and that I may get closer and closer to it, but I fill never truly find it. I wish I could explain it better, but it is as if I yearn to be consumed by the very essence of nature... yet... all at once... some part of me knows that this is impossible.

Perhaps it's all some sort of dream... a fantasy beyond explanation. I seek an ideal that I will always strive for, yet will never achieve... and yet I have seen a glimpse of perfection... the very thing I yearn for is there in front of me, but I can never touch it.

I don't expect very many of you to understand... and I apologize for burdening you with such rubbish... but I needed to express this thought...

I understand, SA...I really do as I've felt the same all my life...whats more...its not a fleeting feeling but more of a constant yearning just beneath the surface of everyday life...and I feel like everything on the surface is a mask meant to hide this yearning from the outside world...its only in the solitude of nature or my own mind that I find myself able to fully immerse myself in this inexplicable desire.

I know you understand Tutu... I've known that since I first met you on this forum. It's strange though... the part of me that would advocate rationality wishes to dispell such notions as nothing more than childish fancy... but at the same time... I cannot ignore my intuition, and it is telling me something I do not fully understand. In this sense, I suppose, I feel torn between two worlds: my upbringing that has always favoured scientific explanations, and something else, deep down inside me, that I wish to understand, but feel I never will.

I am curious though Tutu, you state that this desire is inexplicable... yet I can't help but wonder. What are your thoughts concerning this yearning?

SA...all that science really teaches us is that reality, experience, existence, life, etc...is all relative and that we can do no more than simply ponder anything beyond that...to the mind, from which science springs, nothing exist nor can exist in knowing, beyond that which it can perceive or measure...given that, if there is one thing which we ought to rely upon above all other things...its our intuitive knowing. Science is like the mind's looking glass to percieve and understand the things without, but the mind itself is its own looking glass to percieve and understand the things within. I think that above all else, the self wishes to know itself and express that outwardly. I cant explain it any better than that but, thankfully, I dont really have to. You intuitively know exactly what I'm trying to express. We just cant package that knowing in a neat little box of words or set of measurements.

Have you ever studied naturalism, SA?
Naturalism is a philosophy that holds that we are creatures that exist within the realms of the physical world, and yet there is room for a type of spritual longing and experience that comes from out of that vague understanding of what that really means...insatiably curious, we are...the ancestors of the stars...we can't fully appreciate our own profoundness...

BTW SA the above post of mine is just my thoughts on the matter...when I direct my attention within...and the world without quietens to a whisper...I feel just as helpless, lost and uncertain of what it all means.