Close your eyes for a moment, wait, read this first, then close your eyes...I want you to think of your favourite moment with nature, or however many you have.  Just relive those moments that are etched into your mind forever, allright, now close your eyes...if you have a serene or even goofy grin on your face and goosebumps running up and down your arms, you're where I am right now!

Right now, I'm thinking of the Timbavati crossing.  I'm riding shotgun, but we've stopped in the riverbed.  A hot cup of tea is close by.  I've stopped trying to count shooting stars, and now I'm just sitting.  I close my eyes and try to rely on my other senses.  Engulfed in darkness, I can focus on listening.  The waterbuck is wading through the river again, and the hippo is snorting in disgust at whatever came too close.  I'm trying to shut these sounds out, and I focus on the insects, suddenly I'm aware of the loud buzzing their creating, the traffic of the bush...this too I shut out after a while, now I can hear the movement of the little waterturtles, trying to swim through the reeds...then, the moment I've been waiting for, silence.  The kind of silence that threatens to crush you, but you can't make a noise, your stunned!  This is how I sit forever.  All noises are silent to me know, and I can't breath, trapped by the darkest of darks and the silence.  Then, just when I think this is getting a bit intense, a soft breeze blows the scents of the veld to me, it plays with my hair, and toys with my imagination...just when I think of 1 Kings 19, the wind gets so strong, it almost pushes me back into my seat...and I know God is with me right now.  Even when I'm sitting here, in the city, in front of the computer, I can feel Him, I can feel that wind and I think of 1 Kings 19 - "Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.  After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.  And after the fire, there came a gentle whisper..." 

When you think of the most memorable moment, do you think of big events, or do you think of the whispers?  I can't remember what we saw that night, I can't remember where we went, the only thing I can remember is that silence, with the gentle breeze...I remember how I thought of my spirituality and how it was confirmed.

I think, for all of us nature holds more than just beauty or serenity.  It transports us to a different place, it fills us with a humbling sense of spirituality...or is it just me?