When thinking about what to write next for this blog, Walden by Henry David Thoreau came to mind. The book explores Thoreau’s personal experience living in nature and his experiment in “wanting to live deliberately.” As I read more about what Walden represents, I realized how closely it aligns with my own desire to share how much nature can teach us.
I’m not an expert on Thoreau, and I’m not here to interpret his philosophy or argue my own. Instead, I want to share his experiences and connect them to the lessons I’ve learned — and continue to learn — from spending time in nature.
This won’t be a one‑and‑done project. Reading books about nature and reflecting on what they reveal can become a regular series. Each entry will focus on choosing a book, reading it, and summarizing what the author is trying to share about their experience. Our interactions with nature are deeply personal, and it’s fascinating to explore how different people describe the ways it shapes them on a deeper level.
When the summer heat settles in and everything feels heavy, animals don’t fight it — they adapt. I noticed it myself the other day when I took my dogs outside; the longer we stayed out in the heat, the more they started panting in an effort to cool themselves. Out in the wild, animals slip into deeper shade, wander toward cooler places to forage, or rely on simple, instinctive ways of cooling themselves. Some even shift their entire rhythm, becoming active at night when the world is softer and the air finally lets them breathe. And when water grows scarce, different species gather at the same few places. Predators and prey cross paths more often, not out of aggression, but because survival sometimes brings unlikely neighbors together.
Watching how animals respond to heat makes me think about the ways we handle our own difficult seasons. They don’t push through the discomfort or pretend it isn’t there — they slow down, seek shelter, and change their routines when they need to. They conserve energy instead of burning themselves out. And when resources are limited, even creatures who normally keep their distance find themselves sharing the same space, drawn together by a common need. There’s something honest in that. It reminds me that resilience isn’t always about being strong; sometimes it’s about adjusting, resting, and recognizing that we’re all trying to make it through the same heat.
There are things we can learn from these small adjustments animals make. On the hottest days, we can give ourselves permission to slow down, seek out cooler spaces, and change our routines instead of forcing ourselves through discomfort. We can drink more water, take breaks in the shade, or shift certain tasks to the early morning or evening when the day feels lighter. And just like those animals gathering at shared water sources, we can lean on each other a little more during difficult seasons. Sometimes resilience looks less like pushing through and more like accepting the heat, adjusting our pace, and finding support where we can.
As I sit on my porch watching the rain, I notice how the water falls, hits the railing, and slides down into a puddle without resistance. It doesn’t fight the cloud it came from or struggle against the surface it lands on. It simply follows the path available to it.
This is the essence of Wu Wei – effortless action that moves in harmony with the natural flow of things. A mountain stream doesn’t force its way downhill. When it meets an obstacle, it doesn’t push harder. It yields, spreads out, or waits until it can continue forward. Eventually, it still reaches the sea, but without exhausting itself in the process.
Most of us tend to do the opposite. When we meet resistance, we push harder with willpower until something breaks – either the obstacle or ourselves. Water offers a different approach. Instead of asking, “How do I force this to happen?” it asks, “Where is the path of least resistance that still leads where I want to go?”
You can apply this idea to changing a habit. Step away for a moment and find some water – a stream, fountain, or even running water in your sink. Watch how it moves around obstacles rather than through them. Then return to your situation and look for the existing “gradient.” Maybe stress is driving the habit, or maybe certain tasks need to be removed or delegated instead of powered through.
Lasting change often comes from gentleness and repetition rather than force. Rather than trying to change your life at once, take small, consistent actions that align with your natural rhythm. If you want to read more, for example, start with just five minutes while you drink your morning coffee. These small efforts accumulate without draining you. Over time, they reshape your life the way water gradually reshapes stone.
In my job, I see the same pattern with a lot of people. They’re capable and hardworking, but they’re constantly battling this low-level exhaustion and lack of motivation that doesn’t seem to match how much they’re actually trying. Lately, I’ve been wondering if part of it comes from something most of us don’t talk about much: the nonstop flood of information we deal with every day.
I didn’t even know there was a term for it until recently — “information overload.” But once I read about it, I recognized it immediately. It’s that feeling of having too much coming at you at once, and your brain just starts to shut down or scatter. For me, it shows up as urgency, mental fog, irritability, and this strange sense of being tired without having done anything particularly hard. I’ve also noticed it makes it harder to stay motivated, even on things I actually care about.
What surprised me most was realizing how many of the symptoms I’ve felt myself — the low productivity, the anxiety, the difficulty concentrating, the general heaviness. It made me wonder why we don’t treat this more seriously.
I’ve been thinking about how nature handles this kind of thing. In nature, when something gets out of balance, there’s usually some kind of correction. Too much of one thing and the system pushes back. We don’t really have that built-in correction with information. We can keep scrolling, keep checking, keep consuming, and nothing external stops us. So if we want balance, we have to create it ourselves.
That’s what I’ve been trying to do. I’ve started being more intentional about a few things: getting stricter with what information I actually let in, organizing what I do keep so it doesn’t live in my head, and carving out time where I’m not available to every notification or update. I’ve also been working on sharpening my analytical thinking — not in a heavy way, but just getting better at quickly deciding what actually matters and what can be ignored. That last one has helped more than I expected.
I don’t think the answer is to completely disconnect or go off the grid. But I do think we need to stop pretending our brains can handle an unlimited amount of input without any consequences. The motivation issues a lot of us are feeling might not just be about discipline or work ethic. Sometimes, they’re just our minds asking for a little less noise.
The last time I posted was more than 10 years ago and a lot has changed in my life. My journey through college, getting my license, then my independent license has been a journey no one could have prepared me for, but it taught me many things along the way.
Some lessons I learned quickly, but other lessons it took me many years to see the damage. One of the harder lessons for me to learn was that gardening and getting out into nature is fundamental to my inner wellbeing. Many may say that I should have known this, but when one is faced with gardening or providing for their family with money, most would pick money. Money is fundamental to acquire those things we need for basic survival.
The core problem isn’t that I took a break from one thing to achieve another, the problem is that I let 7 years, the time it took me to get through school, turn into 11 years. I finally realize that I consistently put the things I need to feel better on the back burner, which puts me out of balance. Life is about balancing those things that are important to us, and when we don’t do this we suffer.
I have been getting back to gardening and being out in nature the past few years which has greatly improved my mental health, but it took many years for me to learn how important it really is to my mental and physical health.
These are my jars of happiness and want/need (prayers). There are some celebrities that have talked about doing this as a new years resolution but I have decided to do it because it offers a unique experience at the beginning of each year. I took these jars out this morning, and even though I was not very consistent with them last year, they contained little things I had forgotten about over time. Not only did the gratitude jar show all the little things that I was grateful for, the prayer jar showed how much my husband and I had accomplished through the year as well (with God’s help of course).
This year I replaced the gratitude jar with this bigger jar and I will fill it with one event that made me happy each day in an attempt to refocus my mind on happy things. It could be as simple as a feeling of contentment when seeing the sunrise or as big as going on vacation, it does not matter what it is only that it makes me happy. I do not like new years resolutions since many people do not keep up with it long, if you choose to try this, do it as a remembrance each day of the joy that surrounds us all.
My first happy event was playing pool yesterday with my family. We had a lot of fun and even though it did not last that long, I enjoyed every minute of it.
Even though the calendar says it’s a new year I find that today feels no different than last week, or even 3 months ago. The only problem I will face with the change of the new year is writing the one and the six on my checks.
Even though today does not feel any different than 3 months ago, I know life, and myself have changed a lot during this time. What I considered important 3 months ago is not necessarily what I consider important now. What I see about life now is a lot different than what I could see 3 months ago.
As much as I enjoy writing about how to plant according to the pattern set by nature, I am beginning to see a new problem many people face and would like to focus on that as well. A close family member was recently diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, when I sit and think about how I would feel if I was in this position, I begin to realize that I do not enjoy life the way I should. Life is dark and unknown, it holds anger, hostility, and confusion instead of hope, love, and happiness.
With that being said, I am going to focus not only on planting gardens in a more natural way, but learning to enjoy life no matter what happens. There is so much beauty in this world that many miss because their focus is on situations they perceive as bad.
With this new year let’s remember the beauty of life and all it has to offer.
Is life really an adventure? Can we overcome the day-to-day monotonous routine and find adventure that satisfies our inner being? Can people find peace and harmony in a world that seems to be so screwed up?
I say yes to all of these questions. Finding your place in life is not easy and it’s not about filling some preconceived idea of who you are, you must really dig deep to discover what you enjoy and how you want to contribute to life. Once you find this then you can start taking the steps needed to make it a reality.
I’ve known for a while now that I want to help people but I never knew how I wanted to do this. One day I was searching the web and I found a college test site that was studying how well people learn online and one of the courses I could take was psychology. After a few days of doing this I realized that I had found my path, I wanted to pursue a career in psychology.
I am the type of person that is shy and reserved most of the time but there are moments where I jump head-first into something and this was one of them. I asked my husband what he thought about me going to college, he always wants to make me happy so he said supported me in any decision I made about it. I immediately started searching out potential colleges that have the flexibility of online degrees. I applied for information from 4 colleges and ended up taking the next step in 2 of them.
Not going to school in over 20 years made me nervous about being accepted into any college, it’s been a long time since I have been in that type of environment. As it turns out both colleges accepted me, so then I had to make a choice of where I wanted to go, in the end I picked Regent University.
I wanted to post this blog because then any reader will be informed of what I am doing and why I may not post as much, I have to wait and see how blogging fits into my school, life, and work schedule first.
Also I wanted people to know it is never too late to follow your dreams. I refuse to focus too much of my attention on money and how we are going to pay for all this schooling, if this is where God wants me to be then it will work out no matter what. Reach for the starts, make plans and reach your goals. Only when we do our best in all areas will we feel satisfied and happy with our lives.
Last weekend I was reading a book called “The Miracle of Mind Power” by Dan Custer, and in his book he made the statement that humans are born with faith, and lots of it. We have faith that a chair will hold us, or an apple seed will produce an apple, or that our gardens will do well, but when it comes to a Higher Power we tend to redirect this faith somewhere else, so when people say we don’t have faith that’s not exactly true.
For a long time I had total faith in things not working out, I lived with fear, anxiety, and worry, I had so much faith in it that it continued to manifest in my life year after year. Believing what I was taught as a child I thought I didn’t have any faith, but in reality I had a lot of faith, faith in what I didn’t want in my life.
Society teaches us to fear and worry about everything going on, the news tells story after story of hate, anger, and violence. Watching these types of things can redirect our faith to hate, anger, and violence, and when our faith is in these things we will begin to see it more and more wherever we go.
I don’t want to live this way, I want to redirect my faith back to love, happiness, and hope. Yes, violence and hate will continue to be seen on TV and be read in the newspapers, but my personal world will be full of love and happiness.
I have to get something off of my chest this morning, you could call this a rant but I would say it’s righteous anger, if there is such a thing.
I read a post yesterday that was bashing Natalie Portman for her opinion that one act of genocide is no more important than another. Not only were these people who were commenting on the article calling her bad names and telling her to shut up, they were acting as if her opinion didn’t matter when it does. Even I could see that Natalie was expressing her opinion that all lives are equally important.
As I read this post a fire was beginning to build within me, I couldn’t believe that people could be so uncaring of other people who have died. When people act like this it creates a victim mentality and starts a long line of “mine is worse than yours” ideas which feed division and separation between nationalities, sexes, and classes. None of this promotes a loving and unifying atmosphere that encourages love, compassion, and kindness, and yet we sit and wonder why the world is going down the toilet. We as humans will continue down the war-torn road we have always been on because we fail to see the value in all people, and we fail to change the things that perpetuate war and genocide.
What bothered me the most was their lack of compassion for anyone but their own “kind” of people, as if everyone else who died doesn’t matter. What happened to love? What happened to compassion? I wanted to share my thoughts so I commented on how sad I thought their logic was, how sad it was that they didn’t care about anyone but themselves and their own people. I wanted to add a few more choice words like arrogant and prideful but I refrained from doing that out of respect for their opinions, unlike them, I know every person and their perspective matter. We all go through hardships and many let those hardships define them and make them who they are, so in the end they become bitter and spill this negative energy on everyone who comes in contact with their words.
What has this taught me? That I don’t like it when people act as if other people don’t matter, as if their life was only created to be thrown away like a piece of trash, or that their life was only created to be a slave to someone else. Defining another persons life as beneath your own is above ANY humans pay-grade, only one Being gets to define each life and it will judge, not by human standards, but appropriately and fairly.
Mimic Nature 