Connecting with Nature

Today's composition has to be about 'connecting with nature'. In the dark days of January in our year 2011, our world - thats the world of my beloved daughter and I! - has been lit by the film and recount of one man - Simon King. Whether or not you like his delivery and presentation style, here is a man whose world is very different from my own. Watching his presentation at last weekends 'Outdoor Show' I was at times not sure if I was observing stand up comedy or a lecture in natural history!. The truth is that he has blended both into his personal approach to a presentation which he clearly enjoys. He sounded out animal and bird impressions which were not from variety theatre. Instead the sounds he made seemed to capture a real life drama he had previously observed on travels as far and wide as the Shetland Isles and Kenya. Lying prostate on the floor of the Excel Conference Centre theatre in London he recalled how as as child, his mimic of a barn owl, or some similar creature, had attracted the attention of the hovering hunter which took to investigating the sounds he made by staring directly at him from only metres above. He tried to convey to his audience how that experience made him feel; an 'at oneness' with nature, a bursting upliftling joy. It certainly hit home with me. And I recalled when many years ago when a Kingfisher landed on the fishing rod held in my hands at dawn on the River Wharf at Knaresborough. I too could barely contain myself. I could feel the weight of it, silhouetted against the golden sunrise, a small bird with large protruding beak, held as it was for a moment in my hands, I was also connected with nature. The feeling I felt was what Simon tried to portray to his audience; a cross between a shock of electricity and a deep warmth spreading throughout the body. An orgasm if you like! Amazing don't you think, that a fishing trip or an experience 'connecting' us with the natural world might do actually that! Well, not to me, not to Simon and of course non exclusive to all of us.