A MOMENT WITH NATURE

 A MOMENT WITH NATURE

The city dwellers interact with nature comparatively rarely. Most city settlement areas have completely replaced trees and natural plantation with concrete and mortar. As a result, the air is usually stuffy and acrid. Up-market residences are a little different because of proper planning that ensures fair interaction between nature and concrete making the air a little more fresh. For this reason and if someone's pockets allow, people tend to move to the outskirts of the city where the degree of freshness increases as one heads towards up-country areas.

Some people who can afford have up-country farms where they go once in a while to enjoy interaction with plant and animal life. This can be a refreshing experience away from city life. However, anyone can have an interaction with nature and so add value to the simple moments of life. Just a thought. When was the last time you sat along the river to listen to the sound of waters down the stream? Or left the house for a walk early night to observe the arrangement of stars on the sky? What of picking flowers along the roads in your home area? What of going to sleep under a tree in Uhuru Park, City Park or a tree in rural areas? Or is that only for jobless Kenyans? I bet that a gaze at nature can give us a pose to enjoy simple moments of our lives. Planting in pots, tending kitchen gardens or keeping domestic animals are good experiences to those with the space to do so. Probably, doing these things more intentionally may add more value to our lives since our living days are not many and quickly fly away.

Sometimes, our days are filled with pressure that makes us not to enjoy easy moments of our days. With tomorrow not belonging to us, the greatest blessing God gives us is today and the now. The past is gone and the future exists only in our imaginations. Our duty is to do God’s will today; make a difference in the lives of the human race today and enjoy the many blessings God has granted to us today, greatest of which is breadth of life and nature around us. This is the reason David prays in Psalm 90:12, ‘’ Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.’’ In Psalm 103:2-5, David decides to pause and marvel at what God had done to him and he says, ‘’ Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.’’

Let us not live in the past or be controlled by the future that only exists in our imagination. Let us enjoy every moment of the day because this is what the Lord has done to us.

@Stephen Mungai