The Outdoors

Despite my fondness for sturdy trees, green grass, and breezes smoothing over my cheeks, I am not an outdoors woman. I am not one to go racing ten miles over hilly meadows with ease, nor am I one to spend an entire day outside (except when camping).
What I do enjoy is looking around at the display of nature, admiring the subtle shades of green and brown, browsing my mind to conjure up fitting descriptions for what I see so that I can write it down. Listening to the grasses rustle as I watch their wave-like ripples in the wind. Watching the trees gambol in the wind, storing their delightful, frisking movements in my memory.
I also enjoy watching the miniature drama of our local flying creatures, such as hummingbirds braving territorial carpenter bees for a sip at the hummingbird feeder, only to be forced to grapple with the aggressive carpenter bees in mid-air. Or, the neighbourly mockingbird, forced to move to another bush when he tried to land on his former favorite-only to find a pale brown stump. And, how could I forget the invading blackbirds of the fall, who were seen flying away bearing pecans in their beaks from our neighbours two, aged pecan trees!
Now, searching my mind, I believe that I love the outdoors, not for the challenges it provides, but for its inherent beauty, the stories it whispers to the wind, noisy yet voiceless. In it, I see the beauty and providence of God.