It’s true what they say about traveling, it’s great to get away but great to come home. And travel I did. To somewhere far away, a world away, a culture away. To the wilderness of South Africa, Singita Sabi Sands Reserve. A world inhabited by rhino, elephant, zebra, hyenas. A world where survival is a daily task. Nature, raw and robust. Where communication is primal. Sight, smell, sound. The grunt of a warthog, growl of a lion. Elephants moving slowly but steadily through the bush gorging on tree bark, leaves, and shrubs, the sound of cracking twigs breaking the silence, or snorting trunk signaling in the dark.
I came to this place after many hours of flying, 15 hours of flight. A world away. As I gazed around at these wondrous sightings of wildlife, I realized that this is where it is real. This is where living happens. Eat or be eaten. Contented one minute, ripped open the next. Nothing taken for granted. Every moment is a lifetime. Every second is a blessing. We don’t go often enough into the wood. Into nature to collect the wisdom of the wood. Divorced from what is real, we city dwellers invent the world we live in. Our consciousness concocts our reality. But when we go into the bush, into the wood, we cannot escape what is real. We cannot pretend what is real. We cannot make up the world. We can only experience what is before us. Take it in. Be present. Be mindful of the power of nature. Connect with the realization that we too are a species. That we share this strange and wonderful planet with multitudes of species. And just because we have technology, just because we stand upright, does not make us better. We are all the same in that we are made of the same stuff. Made of elements brought from dying stars.
We are all a miracle. The miracle of life.
