My outward attention this last week has been absorbed by nature. I wonder, have you been affected directly by nature this last week? What emotions have you felt or actions have you taken as a direct result of the forces of nature? Not just the weather, mind, though of course I cannot help but think of Sandy and all of those affected.

Not all of nature is natural

autumn fields fencepost

Last weekend, my beloved and I went for a long walk on the countryside roads that surround our wee village. It was dry and some hazy sunshine was about to make way for a weather front bringing rain. Autumn was showing up in a million indescribable shades of gold, bronze, yellow and green.

I felt an enormous sense of being connected with the scheme of things as we walked along the single track lanes. The fact is that the land upon which we were traversing was full of nature, but it wasn’t all natural – the roads we walked connected the farms and the fields we were gazing upon – all of which bore the mark of man.

Science, faith and truth

We found ourselves discussing farming and the soil, the bees and their plight and more. Precariously linking subject matter, we were soon to be musing upon the notion of science, faith and truth. About how differently scientists view their truth as opposed to people of faith.

You’ll be relieved to find out that I’m not going to share that discussion here, but I was so spiritually full up to have been in amongst the countryside and having deep discussions about it with my beloved, that when I got back home I broke my ‘offline at the weekend’ rule to share some photos I’d taken on Instagram (sharing them also on Facebook and Twitter).

hawthorn silhouette

This photo of one of my favourite local trees caused quite a stir. It received more ‘likes’ than any others I’ve posted online in quite a while. All of it extremely favourable, except for this one comment via Twitter,

That came out really well. Did you have to muck around with it?

I imagine (I haven’t asked) that the commenter felt cheated out of the truth, somehow. That by applying the filter (using Instagram) I had altered the photo beyond its natural state, and possibly to its detriment.

But how I see it is that I used science (technology) to create a version of this picture that represented my truth of the afternoon. After all, I’m an artist not a photographer!

Faith in nature

You see, we all believe in different things, don’t we? My experience of truth is not necessarily the same as yours – in fact, it probably most definitely isn’t. My experience of science, faith and nature is likely to be unique to me and my experience.

Here are some journal prompts for you this week, if you feel so inclined;

  • What do you believe about science?
  • What does faith mean to you?
  • How does nature fit into your belief system?
  • What constitutes your truth in the present moment?