Beauty of Natural Living

I love living in the bush.  I watch clients and visitors arriving daily from towns across the country or even from other countries now days, and I can see the difference between them and me.  I used to be like that and when I have to go back into the rat race of a city for a while I notice I get like that again.  They have the tense timed look; "things must be done this way by this time so that we can move on to the next timed activity.  In that time let us get as much enjoyment out of the occasion by pushing ourselves to our limits".  

I want to explain to them that coming on holidays and trips to the bush is about relaxing, stopping time and moving with nature. I have learnt to watch nature and go with the pace that it sets. The wildlife goes through its day just surviving, that is what their lives are about.  And in that time you can see their enjoyment of how they survive, you can watch the prouncing (not a word but it suits the movement they make) of the young male impala rams as they become alert at the sound of the vehicle and start a straight legged bouncing around, mock charging each other as well as the vehicle. You watch the elephants coming to drink at the rivers edge then slowly pushing and nudging each other until they end up wallowing and tumbling in the muddy shallows. You watch the troop of baboons foraging; but always playing, always chattering, screeching, talking. The older ones teaching the younger ones through gentle methods or rough methods.

Life moves at the pace of nature when you live in the bush.  You realise what is needed and what is not needed in your day. You become conscious and mindful of the life around you. What if these lessons were taken back to your real world and you became more conscious and mindful of the way you behaved and the things you did.  Do you need to push your tired aching body that extra hour to do a job you are not enjoying and which gives you no satisfaction? Do you need to constantly chase the dollar? 

You cannot push a herd of elephants to hurry and cross the road and move away from the green bushes they were eating.  You can try, but it will create a noise and upset the balance of the day for both you and the elephants. Just sit quietly and watch them, learn from them and let them move on.

Floating on a boat on the river shouldn't be about fishing only, sit back and watch the river flowing.  Nothing stops or changes the constant flow, the animals know it will always be there for them, be there to nourish them. 

I wake up in the dark early hours before sunrise then I sit and listen as slowly the earth comes awake.  I hear the calls of the first birds, I see the orange glow of the sun on the horizon.  In the distance I can here a troop of baboons shouting at each other as they probably watch a leopard walking beneath their tree. I can hear impala rams making their honking call, maybe to all their wives and children telling them to gather closer because there is a leopard close.  In the very far distance I can here the roar of a male lion, telling his ladies that he wants breakfast.  The birds become noisier and noise until I cannot distinguish individuals through the cacophony of their morning serenade of the sun; cooing laughing doves, babbling of the Zambezi parrots, the melodic songs of the starlings, babblers, hornbills, robins, thrush and over them all the trumpeting call of the Fish Eagle from the mighty river.  The sun hasn't even crested on the horizon but its orange glow has lightened up all the treesaround and the birds are up and about stretching their wings and their vocal chords. 

Every day in this valley is different and every day I watch the animals moving past me at their pace doing things the way they want as its their survival.  We should learn from them, maybe the whole world would be different.