A Time to Reflect

Time Alone to Reflect Earl Plato
Like others I have garnered many fine memories of Marcy Woods over the years. This article was written several years ago and because of the recent purchase by the DiCienzo family of this nature gem I repeat my feelings again. I wrote the following: I walked Marcy Woods alone this morning on the property of the late Dr. Marcy. This was my 19th trip here since January usually with interested nature lovers. It wasn’t even mid-June but I knew what’s coming. News reports tells us that the wet spring is promoting a bumper crop of mosquitoes. Soon I will have to wear a mosquito hat/net and some Off. That’s nature.
Out here near the bend of the trail I put my tripod seat firmly into the sand trail bed and “philosophized.” I share much of naturalist writer Ed Teale’s views about nature. Before I start my little perspective on nature, Rosebreasted grosbeaks are serenading behind me. Think of a robin’s fluid notes and upgrade its efforts to formal voice lessons and you have the grosbeak’s song and yes its “Chink-chink” call too.
This is as peaceful a place you might find in Greater Fort Erie. I have no fear being out here alone. There is only the working of God’s natural laws. A yellow birch has fallen across the way and smashed into the soft earth of the wetland. It crushes an ant and misses some others. The tree is directed in its downward course by the natural law of gravity. Perhaps a gust of wind deflected it slightly so the ant on the left was hit not the ones a little to the right. The dead ant buried under the trunk was not the target of the falling birch. No intention was involved in the course it took. One ant is killed and others are spared. I am surrounded by the impartiality of nature but I will continue to thank God for his amazing handiwork. Created by chance? I don’t think so.
Yes, I’ve tripped and fallen out here. If I step on a rotten log and fall nature looks on without concern. If I fall and break my neck that’s another thing. I have faith in a caring God and pray for protection for my family and myself each time I venture out alone. That’s my personal theology.
Teale puts mankind on a level playing ground with all living things. He says “... if you eat poison mushrooms and die, if a mouse is killed by a weasel, if a rabbit is surprised by a fox or a bird falls into the talons of a hawk” Teale says, “it is all up to us - to all living things - to mankind and mouse and rabbit and bird to be on guard.”
I believe that a Creator God loves us all. That’s a level living ground for me based on a personal faith. That doesn’t mean ignoring natural laws. There is both the terror and the pain; the brightness and the beauty in nature. Both must be seen and recognized. Teale says, “Neither can be ignored. Nature is not gentle but there are warm and gentle breezes. For even the most timid and hunted of creatures, there are moments of peace and natural pleasure.”
Enjoy DiCienzo’s Marcy Woods this year for it gives to many natural enjoyment.
I hope to visit Ed Teale’s Trailwood Sanctuary in Massachusetts this July, 2007. I will compare it with Marcy Woods and report my observations.