Nature is one of the greatest blessings of God

Bijenti Irengbam *

Mother Earth, Sister Venus, Brother Mars and Mercury started as boiling hot balls of rock. “Venus and Earth are often called twin planets because of their similar size, mass, and interior structure,” said Dr Christopher Russell.

Mother Earth, Father Sky, God Sun and Goddess Moon keep us moving forward with the air and light that we cherish and feel as a blessing. Monster Storm, Climate change is often seen in itself as a hazard. Most life perished through extreme heat, suffocation or starvation.

This is where true hell on Earth appears. The ultimate Hot house Earth has, thankfully, not yet been reached. If it had, we would not be here to discuss it. Our sister planet Venus – heated to the point where the oceans boil away, with water vapour streaming through a punctured stratosphere, leaving a furnace-like surface devoid of life.

Weather forecast told us that a big storm was on its way. The wind started howling and the rain arrived. I looked out of the window and saw the trees bending a little as if an invisible hand was pushing them down but they were resisting.

I was curious to see what was happening outside so I crept out. The invisible hand must have gotten a whole lot stronger because the trees were bending even further. Leaves and branches were flying past the window.

Hailstones as big as elephants plummetted to the earth. Mother Nature is sometimes paired with Sky Fathers and the Father of Time acting as their balancing counterparts. People have cut down the forests to make way for cities, this is the advancement of civilization. People start polluting. People can stop it. People throw trash somewhere outside, so their house doesn’t smell.

So people went out for a walk for some fresh air, they took their trash with them in a black bag and dump everything out, at a corner, on a sunny street. The bag is usually right in the middle on the street, while fast food soda cups and plastic bottles, straws and other tissues etc are scattered down the street.

Some people aren’t worried about the trash thrown out of cars. One of our neighbours, would come by every day, and throw a little garbage on road side like he was delivering a morning newspaper. And every morning, our Mother Earth is picking up the paper and carefully collecting every piece of trash with her bare hands. Every banana peel and used plastic cup, and dispose of it.

Mother Earth wouldn’t get angry. She wouldn’t fight. She wouldn’t react at all. People litter on roads and streets etc. because of many reasons like; laziness, the ‘logic’ that the area is already messy, why bother finding a trash can ?

Plastic bags, cans, and other trash have been thrown into the water that not only kill life in the water but also pollute the water day by day. It is reported that millions of natural forests are lost every year, either through the permanent destruction of forests or through their degradation.

If we destroy the environment, it will destroy us too. Cyclones are a direct result of man destroying and or interfering with the natural order of the environment as designed by the creator. Earth is our true home. It means that our house is not our only home.

And it is the responsibility of all of us to take care of our Home. Manipur experienced heavy rainfall all resulting in extensive damages to houses, properties, crops. The floods came in the night and by morning I had seen many house submerged.

People lost everything in the flood water. Our familiar Ema Markets are flooded. The only source of income and the livestock they had is lost in the water. Roads have been turned into rivers due to flooding and several villages flooded, power outages and roadblocks in the affected parts. Intense rainfall, strong winds and thunderstorms will be permanent features of future cyclones.

Why is nature so important to human beings ? Our natural surroundings, our environment; nature needs our love ,without time to consider the question, people find it hard to answer. We humans depend on Nature for everything that matters except love.

Why is nature so healing ? One possibility is that having access to nature—either by living near it or viewing it—reduces stress. We share the Earth with a wondrous variety of other life forms and with complex natural processes.

We are the beneficiaries of the only place in the universe that can support the human life form which evolved in the cradle of the natural world. We live in a society where people spend more and more time indoors and online—especially children. We live in a world of almost constant bombardment of screens, information, technology, and long boring hours working inside surrounded by concrete walls.

Nature calls you back to reality. We can’t stop rain. We can’t delay the setting sun. We can’t set the temperature to a comfortable level. If we’re climbing a mountain, our muscles are going to ache. But with this surrender comes such relief ! We awake from a dream and realize how little control we really have.

We remember that hardship and lack of control are part of life, and accepting the beauty of nature around us is one of the greatest gifts from God. Viewing natural beauty in the form of landscape, paintings, at least, activates specific reward circuits in the brain associated with dopamine that give us a sense of purpose and joy.

Perhaps we don’t have the time to notice the birds calling, the bees buzzing and to enjoy the colours of the changing seasons in a local park, even in our own street. Pressure of daily life means we’re increasingly detached from nature even though nature in many forms is there for us.

Yes, like love, nature is all around – and it’s free. Our natural surroundings, our environment; nature needs our love. Loving nature should be one of the easiest things to do and something that must come to us naturally. If not for anything, to satisfy the selfish human nature !