Integration is a natural process and cannot be predicted. I anticipated that along the way in this study I would eventually begin to take Nature into my own self-segregated world. Over the past 2 weeks of early morning hikes through the preserves, I began to feel a sense of alertness and sensitivity for hours beyond my time in. This is not unusual for myself, as a mind/body practice tends to culture this. However, the subtlety of Nature’s attributes peered from the shadows and cracks in the pavement. This man-made world presented itself to me as a gargantuan art project, like the complex developments of termites. Again, these are not atypical thoughts. Though, to feel it, to feel more of an extension of the Natural world as opposed to the human ecosystem; that is an embodiment that only comes through immersion.

And then, the craving of the connection comes. Returning to the preserves, such revelations build a continuously evolving and subtle humbleness that surely is felt amongst the environment’s inhabitants. We are no longer definitively divisible. The fauna draws nearer. The flora, more revealing. The camaraderie is just in time for the coming cold.

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