What Is Nature?

In the beginning, the earth was a dark void, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness and the Good Spirit hovered over the surface of the deep watery abyss. Then He said LIGHT! and light appeared. Thus began the process of how the world was created. After the world was made; all the trees and the rivers, the fascinating landforms and the animals to roam upon them, the skies and all the birds, the fishes that fill up the seas, the sun that gives light and the moon that accompanies the night, the wind, the rain, everything that can be seen and things unseen, all were made by the Good One. He saw His work and said it is good. However, despite all the beauty on earth, something was not quite right. There was none to enjoy all that had been made, so the Good One made man and put everything under mans care. Everything was perfect, and man was happy. This is nature. Now these things happened a very long time ago, long before man cut down the trees and killed the animals, poisoned the air and poisoned the rivers. He built his own world with concrete and steel, destroying the natural world in the process. Everything he did was born out of pure selfishness. He thought he would be happier but happiness was so far away in the past, faded from his memory that he did not know exactly what it felt like anymore. His health failed and his life became shorter by the day. Centuries passed, and all this time, the Good Spirit watched with sadness in His eyes, a father looking at his straying son destroy the gift he was given. But in all these, the Good One knew that man was growing; in a weird way, this was part of mans growing up process. Today, man is still growing and every now and then he creates some sort of replica of what nature is and I dare say that sometimes he does an even better job, an improvement on what nature originally was. I see it all the time in parks, gardens, orchards, and man-made lakes and fountains, sometimes I see it embedded in the concrete and steel buildings too. When you find yourself In the woods in summer; listening to the sound of the birds in the trees, watching the little animals play, feeling the warmth of the sun and the gentle breeze that brings with it the scent of green that sweet smell that seems to scream ALIVE!At that moment when you are far from the noise of cities and the depressing sights of concrete and red brick. You experience everything in their true form as the creator originally intended. Deep within you there is a sweet feeling you cannot explain. For those few moments, you know you are truly happy. That is feeling I hope to create. That is what I understand nature to be.

Festus Adibe .A University of East London Application Reference no. 0230348