Journaling in Banff

an excerpt from my journal written in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada, on July 5th, 2017

Nature is so beautiful. It is perfectly balanced, and designed so that every being gets a chance to live on Earth. The turtle is slow, but it has a shell to hide. Zebras are vulnerable, but they have stripes to hide from their predators easily.

Nature is beautiful, but it is not perfect. Because if it were, we wouldn’t be here. Humans have the ability to enjoy what is around them. We can feel emotions. We can stop and admire, too. But we destroy what surrounds us.

I don’t know if it’s in our nature or if it’s just a bad cycle we can break from eventually. I hope we will and I hope it isn’t too late.

It breaks my heart to see the Earth suffer, our only home. I know we will be gone someday. And the Earth will keep spinning and maybe the sun will explode and new species will make their way into life on this planet.

But we’re here now. And we’re making it hell for others. Because we’re selfish.

I’m sitting on a fallen tree right now, with the wind playing with my hair and the pages of this journal. I’m surrounded by beautiful tall trees and the mountains far away. I look around and I think it’s fair to say that I’m in love. With trees. With woods. With the snow on top of the mountains and the blue sky over my head. I could stay here forever, just looking up.

I’ve definitely noticed that I feel most alive when there’s nature all around me, cause I feel like I belong here. Like I was meant to live alongside trees and grass and deer and even mosquitoes.

I feel connected. I feel gratitude to have eyes that can see what I see with admiration, ears to listen and fingers to touch.

Thank you Earth for being so beautiful.