The joy of life, to me, comes from a sense of being where I belong, living the life I have chosen to live. I am happy and satisfied here, my feet rooted deeply in the soil of these woods, enjoying the winds that blow upon me, and being refreshed by the rains.
So my life is in this beautiful, wild, hilly rural area where I have an emotional connection with nature. Nature inspires me, calms me, and delights me. It tickles my funny bone, and saves me from despair. Sometimes, it even repulses me. But, of course, nature just is--I'm the emotional one in our relationship.
I'm not a naturalist, or a scientist; I'm only a nature lover. I tend to view nature through rose-colored glasses. I find pleasure in feeding wildlife. It makes me feel good to see white tailed deer eating the chopped corn I put out for them near the house, especially in the winter, when food is scarcer for them. (They, in turn, reward me with their total acceptance of me, allowing me to get to know their "ways.") It makes me feel good when I see a hungry, cold, homely opossum munching on a piece of stale bread I left out on a frigid night.
Since I'm an emotional person, I hate to see animals suffering, so if I can extend that homely opossum's life by a few weeks by not letting him starve, I will do so. The wild birds of my area will always find the feeders full, too, and a stray, homeless cat (or dog) will find sustenance and kindness.
The black snake has a way of raising my blood pressure. When one got into the chicken coop and was about to make a meal of some of my baby chicks, the little mother hen tried to fight it off valiantly. The mother hen's cries brought me running to the coop, and not knowing what else to do at the moment, I grabbed that snake's tail end and flung him out of the coop! Only after having accomplished getting the snake out of there, did I almost faint at the thought of having touched him, while he slithered off into the near-by woods. Then I realized he was just doing what snakes do when they're hungry, and I was just being emotional. Even black snakes have predators, and may end up as an owl's meal!
The birds in the trees, the snake sunning on a log, the spider spinning her web, these creatures are all a part of the great struggle for life. Their world is a harsh one, yet they all cling to life. Nature is life, and it is good to be alive on a frigid winter day, or a sunny summer one, whether you're an emotional human being living in the woods, or a gray squirrel raiding the bird feeders.
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