“Nature’s Calm”

“The scene at the pond, all the elements of sky, banks, water, vegetation, and life forms becalmed Skylar. He had spent most of the earlier four years indoors, only occasionally walking in the woods near the graduate school or by Lake Carnegie. Living in the cottage brought him closer to nature and nature had, throughout his life, shown him a pattern on which he ought to model himself. As he reclined on the boulder, watching the water and trees, listening to the croaking frog and the chirping birds, seeing the silent passage of the clouds without having to look up from the pond, Skylar envied everything he saw. He wanted to rest still like the unruffled water, to stand steady like the deep-rooted oak, to resist storms like the solid boulder, and fly high without a care like the warblers and sparrows. Skylar had never been able to understand how other men throughout history, having looked at themselves and the world, concluded that they were the kings of creation. All he ever felt inside himself was struggle and search, aspiration, frustration, and hopelessness. Surely, he had moments of insight and glimpses of grand potential, but what good were they since they never lasted? These supposedly lower forms of life and inanimate matter existed without question. They simply were. Birds did not debate whether they had the courage to fly out of the nest every morning; they just did it. Fish did not have to make an effort to swim; they just swam. Trees grew; clouds formed and floated; the sun shone; the water moved naturally in response to the wind. Skylar saw effortlessness in everything he observed. Nature, rather than being limited by its lack of reflective capability, reached its full potential precisely because of that lack.”