As I sit on my backyard deck listening to a songbird sing his concert for only me, or so I thought, I am left wondering about so many miracles we do not get to see at first glance from Mother Nature’s living room.

I once happened to stare at a tulip bud for no reason, and it opened before my eyes. What a treat! Of course, I’m reminded of that moment whenever I stare at another flower bud thinking it too will open, but I’m kidding myself if I ever see another flower blossom before me again.

I wonder about other nature’s mysteries. Where do all the songbirds sleep at night? Do they have favorite trees, or do they plop themselves on the nearest branch after the sun sets?

With so many big black bears and 6-point bucks, I wonder if they aren’t killed by hunters’ guns, do they either die from disease or old age? Logic then says when we walk into the woods, we should commonly find dead bears and deer, but I never have. My friend says they get eaten by other animals as nature’s way of balancing life with death.

What better advice we should get than what the renowned scientist Albert Einstein wrote, apart from all his data collected from his study of human existence and the universe:

“A human being is a part of the whole called a universe, and yet, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

I’ve known animal lovers who don’t like people and people who don’t like animals. There are those who won’t step one foot into the woods in fear of snakes, bugs and anything that might attack or bite them, and some who are much more comfortable in the deepest and darkest forest than they are in a grocery store trying to navigate their cart around the traffic jams at the ends of the aisles.

I’d rather see trees than houses when I look out the window. And who better than to take advice from than Anne Frank, who suffered such horrific atrocities before she died at a young age.

She wrote, “The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.”

The marvels of Mother Nature move in no rapid succession. The seasons change not according to dates on our calendars, but whenever she decides to warm the air, drop the leaves or make it snow.

She can be unpredictable, destructive and heartwarming. She can be as kind to give us a warm sunny day or send upon us her storms of anger. She deserves our love and our respect.

Of all the things mankind has conquered in its history, she is and will always be more powerful than him. In conflicts between man and her, she remains undefeated for her nearly 14 billion years of existence.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.”

As we run from here to there in our frenetic lives, Mother Nature does her thing with the seasons with no hurry. When I allow her to be a sanctuary of comfort, then my heartbeat slows down, my body is at rest and my mind fills with a peace that nothing else in the man-made world can offer.

Of course, we can trust certain behaviors that significantly affect our well-being. Author Rachel Carson wrote, “Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.”

Emerson said we need the “tonic of nature” and it’s free of cost, the best remedy for everything that bothers us and the best motivation for the mind. Great thinkers throughout the history have come up with their ideas while walking ocean shorelines, sitting on a bench, overlooking sunsets upon lakes or hiking trails that run deep through the woods.

In Henry David Thoreau’s 1853 journal he wrote, “I love Nature partly because she is not man, but a retreat from him. None of his institutions control or pervade her. A different kind of right prevails. In her midst I can be glad with an entire gladness. If this world were all man, I could not stretch myself, I should lose all hope. He is constraint, she is freedom to me. He makes me wish for another world. She makes me content with this.”

He said in the mid-1800s what so many of us feel today. Find time and a quiet place outdoors. Sit in solitude and silence. Let Mother Nature work her miracles upon us and, if nothing else, let her soothe our souls. No cost. No loss.

Peace of nature delivers peace of mind, so needed to sustain us through the chaos and clamor of this crazy world.

Email Rich Strack at richiesadie11@gmail.com