Nature Blog Network

I hope all of you are watching the wonderful Ken Burns documentary on America’s National Parks this week. At the time of this writing I’ve only seen the first episode, but it encapsulated so well what I wanted to say in this place for this topic. “Spirit” is kind of a nebulous topic; intensely personal, it means something different to each individual person.  But each of us, I’d be willing to wager, enjoys nature partly because of the sense of the wonder and majesty and interconnectedness in  the natural world, we enjoy being a part of something bigger than ourselves.  And whether that wonder is with a mind towards a personal god or not, it’s a sense of peace that is filling and satisfying.  I’m not a spiritual person by any means, but I’m down with that.

And so back to my original thought from the National Park documentary.  The first episode spends a good deal of time on John Muir, the consummate American naturalist whose deep and abiding love for the Yosemite Valley was the result of a sort of spiritual awakening, with his strict Scottish Presbyterian upbringing morphing into a full-fledged, full-throated worship of the grandeur of God through worship the natural places.  Muir was such an avid convert to his new version of his old faith that he took on the appearance and language of a holy man, preaching his gospel of nature and especially preservation of the wild places to the world, eventually reaching the ear of the President.  The rest is conservation history, but less known is that he was as devout in his beliefs as any religious leader, and I think any one of us would be hard-pressed to argue against his central tenant,  that “The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness”.

Yosemite Valley photo from wikipedia

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- Into the Woode presents nature inspired poetry and art and essays on how nature can encourage, uplift, and calm the spirit.

- From the natural splendor of California’s Channel Islands comes April Lorier of Christian Nature, where she shares her spiritual observations about her faith and the natural world around her.

- Tonya is an artist inspired by nature who writes and displays her faith-based work In the Garden.  Lots of really nice macro flower shots here.

- You might be surprised at the total number of birds present in the Bible.  The disciples may have been fishers of men, but perhaps they here listers of birds, as well?  Birds of the Bible covers what they may have seen.

- Liberating Wings is the blog of minister and bird veterinarian LoraKim Joyner.  There she provides excerpts of her sermons as they pertain to birds and nature and other lovely things.

- EVOLve_the soul scan bay is a little more new-agey than the other spiritual blogs, but who said spirituality had to be pigeon-holed as primarily western religious traditions.  Not me.  Nice pictures here.

- Last in our Spiritual blog lineup comes Nature’s Place, which I just have to say, has some of the most incredible macro shots of bugs I’ve ever seen.  This blog could justifiably be an excellent bug blog, but the reflections on life and inspiration make it an appropriate addition to this category as well.  Do yourself a favor and check this one out.

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My calender says that next Monday is a civic holiday in Australia, so in order to make their holiday even more special I’m going to re-visit Aussie nature blogs next week.  Please check out my original post on Australian blogs, if you know of any I missed then, or those who have since joined the NBN, let me know at naswick (at) gmail (dot) com.

Til next week!