Kickstarter #2 - Nature

Just like cars sometimes need a cable to jumpstart their engines, you and I could do with a reminder of two how we can kickstart our life when we’re feeling a little flat. With modern day amenities, gadgets, appliances and devices, we’re all a click and a switch away to making things work for us. Pushing a button gets you from ground floor to the 20th. Flip over the cover and you are connected to the world. Swipe your credit card and half the world is yours to purchase. The power is ours to further our personal interests and ambitions and to add to our ever-growing list of assets in today’s material world.

I’m not suggesting that having such means and capabilities is a bad thing. It’s great to be connected and be in sync with how the world operates in this day and age.But when we talk about connectedness, being connected isn’t always a good thing. You’re just a Blackberry away from your boss. You’re just a click away from a scandalous rumour about you on someone’s blog. You’re just a view away from a voyeur across the street.

You see connectedness, gadgets and gizmos have their way of intruding into our lives, to rob us of our privacy and security. If connectedness has worn you out and made you wary and weary, how about plugging in to nature?

Nature is God’s masterpiece you didn’t have to lift a finger to create, but to appreciate. The magnificent mountains that tower over the deepest valley, the clearest lake to the mysterious deep seas, the variety of species in the animal kingdom to the endless hues and forms of ferns, flowers and forests. Truly a breathtaking sight to marvel that’s around you. I was in awe when I looked up into the skies above Kenya. It was an extraordinary feeling of being thrust into a galaxy of stars in all its dazzling splendour. I’d never known stars shine so bright in the night sky till I was in a remote village in the mountains. Nature has an amazing way of refreshing us. It has a way of settling us, of numbing our worries, of putting things in their place and shifting our perspectives about how we see ourselves against the backdrop of nature.

Transport yourself to a place where nature abounds, where nature runs wild, where nature is undisturbed. Dare yourself to behold the beauty of nature in all its creativity - unpretentious and honest. Let it not just appeal to your eyes, but all your other senses. Let it wash over you; feel the different sensations on your skin. Tune your ears to the chorus of animal calls and tree branches that dance in the wind. How about the rolling streams of the river or the thunderous roar of cascading waterfalls? Don’t shut out the sights, sounds, smells and sensations of nature. Retreating to them evokes a sense of refreshment like no other can. Swim with the sharks, have breakfast with an orangutan, go bushwalking or nature treks.

Rough it out when you’ve been roughed up in the grind of life and you’ll come out ready to take on the world fresh and renewed.