How does this picture make you feel: Scared? Happy? Or in awe of nature’s ability to co-exist with humans?

We often disrupt Nature, and she, in her wordless way, adapts. Here, a tree wraps around a concrete marker along an old rail line, almost upending it, showing how out of place it really is in her forest.

And here, she directs the bark to devour an old metal sign along the same route, effectively swallowing it, making it finally disappear! Nature doesn’t need boundary markers, when after all, everything is connected. Everything counts.

Even at the end of a lifecycle, as the fallen tree below shows, Nature provides fertile ground for a carpet of green moss to root and flourish, sustaining robust growth of flora + fauna on the forest floor.

We have so much to learn from Nature! All we have to do is look. (She leaves no trash; she reuses and recycles everything.)  Given the current state of the world, it really does seem it’s time to appreciate, embrace and adapt to Nature’s systems too.

The top two photos here are from the Reformatory Branch Trail, in Concord, MA USA; the bottom one, also in Concord, is along the Old Rifle Range. Stop by some time; both are free, open to the public and have much to teach.