Nature's Beauty

Those of you who know me may be surprised to read a post title such as "Nature's Beauty". After all, Mother Nature and I have never gotten along. After 8 years of military training environments, I'm all camped out, and refuse to camp or hike or spend any more time outdoors than is absolutely necessary. After all, "Thou shalt not hike" is one of the core tenets of my religion. Yet one of the questions on Plinky.com caught my eye, and I thought I'd answer it for today's post:

What's one of the most beautiful things you've seen in nature?

You all know that I'm not much of an aesthete. It's why I don't really dabble in the arts, and why my home decorating skills revolve around practicality: what looks neat and tidy and what is easy to clean. This lack of aesthetic sensibility stretches to nature, as well. Blue oceans and red sunsets and black starry skies and orange canyons and purple mountain majesties are all well and good, and I do enjoy them simply because their existence are a sign of a healthy (part of the) planet. But visually? I don't find anything striking in that sort of beauty.

True to form, I find beauty in functionality. And that is why the beautiful things I've ever seen in nature are its living creatures (except for humans :-P) Everyone knows that not only do I have a soft spot for animals, but most of the time I actually like them a lot better than I like people. But that's for another post... this is about why animals are the most beautiful things I've observed in nature. Every creature is perfectly engineered for its surroundings. Porcupines have quills and turtles have shells for protection. Many have fur to keep warm. Some live in amazing tandem, like crocodiles and their feathered "toothbrushes". Fish are streamlined to glide effortlessly through the water. Even the ugliest animals, such as the star-nosed mole, are marvels in their function. The food chain, albeit heartless at first glance, provides a good balance of life and predator and prey work to keep things in harmony.

Not every creature is visually pleasing, but each of their unique adaptibilities to their environments is stunning to me. Nothing is more beautiful than seeing animals living peacefully, free of human interference, in their own habitats, the way they were meant to. It doesn't get more "natural" than that, in my opinion!

How about you?