Nature and Us

When I think of Spirituality and being a pilgrim in Nature, the first thing that comes to my mind is the story of Creation- how God created the land, the sky and the seas- and filled them with every creature that flies, swims, breathes, walks and crawls. After that he created human beings, putting then on the world he created so that they would enjoy it and at the same time take care of it. Because of that we could say that being pilgrims mean to observe Nature to understand it and make sense of it and our place on it. However as time and evolution progressed the purpose of human to understand Nature became blurred- Are we necessary to Nature or Nature can run its course without us, we observe or we act? Then there is the dilemma- Humans can affect Nature both positive and negatively- Do Human do more harm or good to Nature and the Natural course?
For me in this section of the reading Dillard herself illustrates how we observe nature, how we can help it and how we harm it or change it- These examples were about the Polyphemus Moth, The praying Mantis and the muskrats. The incident of the Polyphemus Moth was how a young Dillard observed in class a Polyphemus month coming out of its cocoon in a jar. How, because its was confided in a jar the moth was unable to open its wings and, after being released from the jar, was forced to move only with its legs; all of this happening with Dillard being unable to do anything- but with the impression of the impact a person had on the moth, halting the natural course which would have allowed that Moth to fly. (Dillard,62). By contrast, Early on there is an anecdote of an older Dillard, becoming aware of the praying mantises in the area, and making an effort to keep the mantis eggs she finds, safe. (Dillard,60).

Lastly, Dillard describes her pilgrim experience “stalking” muskrats; how she looked for them and in attempting to watch them, she would sometimes scare them off; as consequence she learned that she had to adapt herself to the muskrat to observe them. (Dillard, 201). From this I learned that when we try to learn from the Natural world by bending it to our ways (keeping a Moth in a jar, or moving too much to see and animal) we are separated from the Natural world. If, in contrary, we use our effort to keep Nature the way it is (how Dillard saved the mantis eggs, so the mantis could still live there) or Adapt to Nature’s ways instead of the other way (Dillard having to move only when the muskrat moved), then we are equal with Nature and in that way we find the spirituality of the Natural course of things.