The beauty of nature …

When you hear someone speak of the beauty of nature, you probably call to mind such traditionally beautiful things as bees in a meadow, or a robin singing merrily, or a magnificent waterfall. But I wonder … do we give all of nature its due?

I was out in the shed today, continuing the work I started yesterday (namely cleaning, organising, and de-mousifying), when I came across a Daddy-Long-Legs spider standing near an egg sac. The spider saw me, grabbed the egg sac, and legged it. It looked for all the world like a momma screaming “my babies! My baabiieeeeeeeeesss!!!”

You can call it instinct if you like, preservation of the species, but I call it nature’s wonders. I wondered about the same thing on Friday when I saw a picture of a snake, and for the first time really saw into its eyes; curiousity, interest, and something else benign that I couldn’t identify.

We fear these creatures, and we’re right to fear them; after all, many of them can harm or kill us. But do we give them enough credit for their uniqueness?

And what about harmless but traditionally ‘ugly’ creatures such as mice? I opened up a box yesterday, reached in to pull out some papers, and a little grey mouse poked his head out and looked at me with interest in his eyes. In that split second before I screamed with surprise (I’m not scared of mice, I used to breed them), I registered a complete lack of fear or malice in his approach, just pure curiousity.

Is that not beauty, in and of itself, that a creature so small and vulnerable would approach a relative giant just to satisfy his curiousity?

I think we need to redefine what is beautiful. I don’t think beauty is limited to those things which are pleasing to the eye, or the soul. I think beauty is all around us, in the everyday wonders of discovery and individuality, even in such creatures as mice, spiders, and snakes. What do you think?