Wonderments

Under the leaf litter lies a world of mycorrhizae, nematodes, bacteria, earthworms, mites, moles and beyond. These organisms perform myriad functions including soil-decomposition, nitrogen-fixation, and adding nutrients to the soil.

This complicated web allows plants, animals and fungi to live together. How did we figure all this out? It started with a question and a dedication and passion to find an answer. Having a magnifying glass and a microscope also allowed us to be able to see all those tiny processes unfolding.

Let's look at the other side of things: something massive. How about the axial tilt of the Earth? The fact that the Earth rotates on a 23.5 degree tilt causes all sorts of interesting things to happen. As the Earth moves through its orbit around the sun the Northern and Southern hemispheres face the sun at different extremes.

For those of us lucky enough to live North or South of the equator, we have seasons. The further we are away from the equator, the more change we see between summer and winter.

Isn't this stuff amazing?

As we live our life we are somewhere in the middle of the minuscule and the massive. We don't need to be experts to understand these things, either.

-This post was copied from an email sent to me by the Wilderness Awareness School. Last summer, I spent a week at this school deepening my understanding of nature...