Nature is a Friend

My relationship with nature could be summed up in a few words or I could go on forever about the many gifts that I have received from nature. Nature to me is a like a friend, a friend that I could not survive without. I rely on this friend for energy, beauty, and the air that I breathe. This friend of nature has been the greatest gift to me, nature was here long before I was born and will exist long after I leave this earth. Nature is the type of friend that never stops giving and asks for little in return. When I think of nature I think of it as giving plentiful sunshine when the sun is needed and raindrops when the earth is too dry. When I envision natures beauty I recall a time when I was hiking through the mountains. All I could see were trees from left to right and the sun rays trying to reach me through the branches of the trees. There was no city or streets to see, just beauty and brightness, and all I could feel was a sense of peacefulness. On page 34 Dillard shares an event in which she was sitting near a stream and enjoying the beauty of nature, "it was sunny one evening last summer at Tinker Creek; the sun was low in the sky upstream. I was sitting on a sycamore log bridge with the sunset at my back, watching the shiners the size of minnows who were feeding over the muddy sand in the skittery schools." Imagining this scene allows me to feel serene and content. It reminds me of hiking through the mountain and admiring the beauty of the sun peeking through the trees.