The Fascinating World of Mother Nature

As I watch summer gradually fade away making room for Fall and her glorious colors of red, green, orange and yellow, I'm thinking about the wonders of Mother Nature that I have witnessed first hand this summer. Not that I haven't seen Mother Nature before, but for the first time in a very very long time I have had the opportunity to witness from my yard up close and personal, not from the window of an office!!

One of the special moments I recall is Lizzy and Buck!! Now Lizzy and Buck are lizards, yes I said lizards and yes I did name them, not because I could recognize them from any other lizard in my garden area but of what I was privileged to witness first hand, and I must say it was a sight I had never seen before!!! You see while dear hubby was building the pergola and I being his faithful helper and bearing the heat right along with him from below, I placed my hand on the deck railing while looking up, when I glanced back down due to the stiffness forming in my neck, there it was....Lizzy and Buck totally involved in the mating process!!!! For the sake of Lizzy and Buck's personal privacy I will not post that picture but yes I did take a picture....after all I had never witnessed two lizards mating and was shocked and amazed!! I will however post the cute little picture of the result of that session, their offspring Lizette and yes I named her as well. Now to be honest I have no idea if Lizette is indeed Lizzy and Bucks offspring or one from the zillion lizards that dwells here, but in my mind that is who she belongs too and I was lucky enough to view Mother Nature in one of her glories.



My next observation is from this past weekend while taking out the trash. As I was walking across the brick patio where our swing sits, I noticed this bean or something that resembled a bean moving at a pretty fast pace crossing the brick and of course I stopped, what in the world??? Now in the past I would have been making a mad dash to the trash so I could move on to the next chore in my short time off and would not have stopped to check this pod out, but this amazed me!!! So I stopped what I was doing and watched this process and realized the pod wasn't moving on it's own but was being dragged!!! Dragged by an ant that was at least three times smaller than the size of the pod!!! As I continued to watch this process I saw that each time the ant came to a hole in the brick or a crack the pod would fall down the crevice, the ant would run around a bit, crawl in the space get underneath, push it out and on with it's job of moving the pod to the final destination!! Wishing I had my camera, but not in the habit of carrying it around in my pocket, I just watched till the ant arrived to where I'm assuming was it's home. I ran in the house got the camera and went straight back....pod and ant gone!!! In that short bit of time the ant took it's bounty to where it belonged.

I'm thinking to myself, how many times in our life are we moving along, doing our job and then we find ourselves in a hole or a crevice??? Do we get underneath the problem push it out and continue on as the ant, or do we give up and say, "Oh well, here I am and there's no way out" and give up!!

I think that our heavenly Father puts us in these "holes" and "crevices" to allow us to get underneath the problem, look up, and push ourselves out!!

Oh yes Mother Nature is oh so fascinating, and to think our heavenly Father has sent it to us as a gift to observe, enjoy and most importantly to learn from!! As I prepare the yard, garden and yes even myself for the changing of the season, not only from Mother Nature but in my own life as well, I pray that I will continue to get underneath and push on!!