Nature

Nature can do a lot in the way of effecting human emotion. It's bleak, harsh landscapes can instill a hopelessness rarely felt, and it's brilliance can change the way we view ourselves, and the world around us. Natural disasters can destroy everything we know and love, and renew the earth through destruction that nothing can match, almost as if the elements need to remind us every once in a while that they're the ones in charge here on this planet, not the human race. Not being one to wax sentimental, at least not often, seeing the beauty all around and stopping to smell the roses every once in a while is something rarely done, the excuse usually being "No time, gotta hurry".

At the best of times, an excuse like the one aforementioned is something that we all use to justify the fact that most of us chose to ignore the environment around us, instead choosing the mundane drudgery of our daily lives, which honestly makes one wonder why? Why do we ignore the beauty around us? Why do we ignore what we have been given to enjoy? For some, it's just too much of a hassle, and for others, it's just a complete oversight. It's time to smell the roses, both metaphorically, and literally, at least for this creature caught up in the world.

Being in the outdoors is a spiritual experience in and of itself. It forces you to see all the beauty that surrounds us, and has always been there, but living in towns or cities, we don't usually see because the suburban sprawl has overrun the last vestiges of it, allowing us to conveniently push it to the back of our minds. We now also have these convenient things called "city parks" where people can get there fill of so called "scenic beauty" without even having to leave the luxury of their sedan unless they want to!!

What one needs to realize, is that unlike everything else in this day and age, there's no drive through for breath taking vista's, no "app" for the feeling of being sore after miles of strenuous hiking, no pill that can make us feel the sense of accomplishment we get after reaching the end of a hike and seeing something rarely seen anywhere else, no "e-book" telling us how it feels to see the sun break over the crest of a mountain ridge we have yet to conquer with nothing but our strength of will and physical exertion. In a world of modern convenience it's something very easily overlooked, and often forgotten: We've been given much in the way of natural beauty, so we might as well slow down, turn off our phones, disconnect from our facebooks, unplug our ipods, leave our laptops behind and get out there and experience it.

"I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright." -Henry David Thoreau

First

So. Here we are again, me and you, you being the unattainable metaphoric being known as the internet, which if you're one to over think things, really could be some all powerful monolith collecting information scattered across the world, and by creating the internet, has somehow managed to condense all of it into an easily accessed library for it's, albeit unknown, undoubtedly dubious plans for the universe. Anyways, now that I've gotten off on the wrong foot with a tangent, and a run along sentence, I feel like I should introduce myself. In a manner of speaking anyways.

I am:
Unnervingly honest.
Not perfect.
Precious to some people, loathed by others.
Loved by my family, which is all that matters.
A lover of animals.
A hater of many things.
An esoteric introvert, flirting dangerously with the term masochistic.
Afraid of the dark.
In love with the world, and all that it has to offer me.
Incredibly blessed to live the life that I do.
A reader.
The person that I want to be, despite what others try to tell me.
I am a free man, despite the weight of the world that I carry on my shoulders.
The child of an alcoholic.
The product of my own choices.
A man with a mission of change, mainly a change within.
I can create wonders with my hands.
I sometimes make poor decisions.
Deep down, I love myself, even though sometimes I forget that.
The child my parents raised.
A lover of nature.
Enthralled with the possibilities that the future provides.
I know that with each day, comes a new challenge, and that each and every day in and of itself is a gift from a power higher than myself in this universal pecking order.
An artist.
The destroyer.
Trying.
A former drug addict.
A traveler on the road of life, and I know that I won't be here forever.
Terrified that when I die I'll be forgotten.
Unabashedly myself.
Hypersensitive.
The creator.
Torn.
An athlete.
I hate satanic things, and all that they stand for, and all the darkness that allowing those things into your life fills you with.
Lost.
Found.
All the little spaces in between.
Loving.
I am a man tormented but also blessed by my past.

Of course this list can go on forever, but above all, the thing that I'm working on trying to remember the most, is that I'm only human, and that I can't be perfect, no matter how hard I beat myself up about not being so.