Nature

In the middle of the stress that surrounds finals, Mary and I found refuge. Mary, taking the nature class with me, and I decided to stroll through the grounds right after each completing a final for one of our other classes. The air was crisp and it was a cold afternoon. 40 degrees is not a suitable temperature for a native Texan like myself, but it felt good. It felt good to get away from campus and rest the mind and soul. My eyes opened, peering all around the gardens and examining each unique tree and landscape. It was like a 10 minute drive transported me into a whole other world, one that was alive and fresh. There were soothing streams, reflective pools, larger-than-life trees, and the residual of flowers. One flower bush we passed only had one flower on it left, but it was a bright-red, flourishing rose. I couldn't help but smile. This flower was still shining even though the world around it was coming after it. Winter was upon it but the flower did not give in. Fin...

Waco, Texas. Cameron Park consists of 15 miles of twisting trails along the Brazos River. My parents and I went on a hike there a couple days before this semester started. A celebration to conclude the end of semester. A time to reflect on the upcoming semester. An experience to enjoy nature and each other's company before heading to Fort Worth. We chose a combination of three trails, which totaled around an hour and a half of hiking. The first trail was a gradual hike up and down a hill, the second was a short stroll along the riverside, and the last was a steep incline back to the trail head from the river. The tree different terrains provided three different experiences. The first trail was mostly brown. Brown from the dirt trail path, the bark everywhere, the rocky landscape. Underneath the coverage of tall trees, we followed a narrow, winding trail up to the climax of a small hill. Along the way up, we slowly and gingerly stepped across old wooden bridges, ducked below hang...

The Smoky Mountains. Enchanting as the smoke rises with elevation. Majestic. Seemingly older than history. Overwhelming. I have never experienced more difficult but also more rewarding hikes. I say rewarding because the views and memories will never be erased from my mind. Granted I have never went on a multi-day hiking trip before this and the trails we went on were beginner level, but all three days of hiking were new challenges for me. The biggest thing that surprised me was the beauty and vastness of creation. These mountains have stood for centuries and hold more stories than I could ever imagine. During my hikes I would look over the horizon and put my location into perspective. I was hiking one mountain on one path for hours and thought I had seen so much.... yet, I was experiencing just one grain of sand on a beach. The mountains encompassed much more than just my one experience. I will probably never come close to hiking even all of just one mountain, let alone all of the Sm...

Time at the Fort Worth Nature Center makes me appreciate nature trails and the complexity of nature. The hour and a half visits are usually spent maintaining the trails, especially fixing any holes in the trail and cutting down branches and plants in the way. This particular time was spent filling in dirt to sunken areas of the trail and creating dirt mounds to direct the water away from the trail. We learned that the damage to the trail is mostly caused by water running off from the grass and eroding the trail. So basically, all the did was move dirt for an hour and a half. This sounds like an experience straight out of Holes , the popular childhood movie. In fact, we even played the soundtrack of Holes the whole time while we dug, which added to the nostalgic experience. However, there was something so purposeful and peaceful about our task. While some could consider it monotonous, I enjoyed the routine of picking up and placing dirt. My mind got lost in the dirt, as it was the onl...

Spent two hours hiking around Eagle Mountain with my parents. The air was a crisp 40 degrees Fahrenheit, especially early in the morning with not much sun warmth. It was a beautiful hike, though the trees looked dead and exposed as most of their leaves had fallen. The flora consisted mostly of trees. However, there was the occasional splotch of cactus that broke up the landscape from the expected grasses and trees. Course, it is Texas, so cactus should have been a commonplace flora but it still surprised me every time I encountered it. The cactus reminded me of my bestfriend's house growing up. He had a small amount of cactus in the corner of his driveway and it always seemed like a nuisance because our basketball would always fall into it. It's crazy how memories of my bestriend's house always arose seeing cactus. The rest of the trip was marked by small windows of treeline where I could glimpse the pristine lake, besides one 10 minute stretch of shoreline trail, and a ...

When I usually think of nature, I don't think of a music festival. However, over the weekend I attended Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festival and spent all three days in a park. Most of the space was open grassland but there were some trees that were very clutch when one is trying to escape the tremendous heat. One tree in particular stood out as it's in the middle of the park and the largest tree out of all the surrounding trees. Besides being aesthetically pleasing, the tree served a dual purpose of shade and a meeting point. The group I was attending with got separated multiple times and the best meeting place was the tree. In viewing the park as a whole, I wondered how a music festival as large as ACL invades a natural environment. Is it bad to commercialize parks and turn them into human-focused activities? I noticed how there weren't any animals around and how trampled the grass was... Zilker park is the closest and largest defined nature area to downtown yet it ...