Having visited the Kruger National Park, and many other game reserves in southern Africa over the past 50 years, it never ceases to amaze me how wonderful these natural areas are when our minds become immersed in their reality. One can consider, yes there is a lion, or yes there is a leopard, and that we have seen them before… but each time seeing one of these majestic creatures is unique and wonderfully special. There is no such thing as repetitive or uneventful when it comes to the wild. Each moment is magnified by the presence of our natural wonders and brings forth our primitive and spontaneous thoughts and feelings.
Nature has a perfect order, and this is evident as each day unfolds for each living creature; be they large mammals, tiny crawling creatures, or elegant flying and calling birds of the sky. The trees and foliage too are magnificent, and the combination of these artificer principles creates what we eco adventures like to call our special place, where we feel more real and most alive.
Feeling alive and full of amazement is our true and natural state as humans, and wilderness areas help us to refresh and refocus our minds into the present. This is our most creative and most happy state and is reached naturally in wilderness areas.
The Animal, Mineral and Vegetable Kingdoms combine to form the foundation of our earth, and in these kingdoms, there is the expression of our Creator’s purpose and perfect plan.
Humans of course are different in that they have the capacity to reason beyond their personal experiences and instincts, and to generate subjective outcomes. The Animal, Mineral and Vegetable Kingdoms respond more to impulse and circumstances, thus making outcomes more predictable and profound.
The elephants dominate the landscape. They are the biggest land mammals and through their size earn the respect of all the other animals. This is seen clearly at the waterholes, and at points where animals cross each other’s paths. Lions have the most attitude, and it is easy to see why they have been referred to as the King of the Wilderness since antiquity. Each other animal and creature too has its place in the wilderness, and no matter their size or attitude, they go about their business of living from day to day.
It is amazing to see no animals nor creatures shrinking in their purpose or daily activity just because they may not be as commanding as the elephant or lion. This is part of the wonder we are all drawn to see and experience when we are in the wilderness and is the magic that draws us back. It is also where we as humanity can draw understanding of how we can better live in harmony and fulfilment on our planet.
The wilderness economy is circular in every way and does not require any support from humanity to survive. People can and do destroy wilderness areas and can and do hunt and poach animals – but if people were not involved in any way in wilderness areas, these areas would continue to thrive in every way. In fact, if we had no people on earth, we would soon have a perfectly ordered world dominated by the instinctive natural kingdoms, and it would survive and flourish for eternity – or at least as long as it may take for another meteorite to penetrate the earth atmosphere and smash into the earth’s crust.
In a human absent world, the Vegetable Kingdom would consume all the CO₂ we as humans have pumped into the air, and soon oxygen levels will rise, and rivers will return to their fresh and drinkable state. Plastic would disappear from our rivers and seas, and earth would return to its natural state of abundance, beauty, and harmony.
The wilderness areas are essential to remind us of what is possible in terms of order and harmony, and how our earth could look if we followed nature’s instinctive and natural principles. These principles echo throughout the Animal, Mineral and Vegetable Kingdoms, as each living creature, plant and tree strives to live to express its nature within. It is a simple cycle of living, with urgency for food, shelter and socialisation guiding its actions from moment to moment. It is a sort of natural governance, where nature provides a foundation of order and purpose, and the animals and other living entities are able to rely on its abundance and consistency.
The Natural Kingdoms do not reason in the way humans do and are not able to consider their united relationship with all of life on earth. They merely follow their instincts and live within their wilderness areas while seeking fulfilment through all that has been provided for them. A grasshopper does not care to be an elephant, and an elephant has no purpose nor will to show its evolved maturity to any of its co inhabitants in the wilderness.
Humans have finely tuned emotional, mental and physical bodies, and live in perpetual desire to improve their status and sense of belonging. We generally do not live to express the instinctive nature within ourselves, but rather to gain as much as we can hoard in the belief that this will support our endeavours at later stages in our lives.
We as humans can learn that nature is for us the same as it is for the animals and creatures in the Natural Kingdoms, with a constant flow and unfoldment of all the things we need to live a purposeful and fulfilled life. When we are not aware of our true selves and do not follow the direction guiding us through the Presence within, we become like the grasshopper trying to eat like the elephant, or the elephant trying to dominate the space of the lion. In the Natural Kingdom, the grasshopper and elephant have no interest in each other’s worlds and actions, and do not strive to be anything other than what their Creator has imposed for them – but do know instinctively that their life and path has value and purpose.
Our human condition gives us dominance over all the creatures of the Natural Kingdom and allows us the ability to reason and understand cause and effect from our actions. Simply put, we have highly developed senses, and advanced ability to watch and learn from thriving communities and our environments, and to draw teachings from nature into our daily living. If we, as the Animal Kingdom does naturally, recognise our purpose and place in the world, and stay focused on enabling our sustainability without impacting on others and the environment, we too will experience the magnificence and completeness of life on earth.
This may sound over simplified, and to a degree perhaps it is, but our ability to think and reason deeper on matters than creatures of the Natural Kingdom, is also what initiates and prolongs our destruction. We become emotional with greed, grief, hate and revenge, and these energies distort the natural flow of positive guides and influences, which would if not distorted, help to lead us through each day with confidence and developmental experiences.
We as humans can learn from the Natural Kingdoms that through having a foundation of order and empathy for environmental and social considerations, we are able to experience the freedom and joy of living in a world of opportunity and learning. Huge benefit is thus derivable from maintaining and growing wilderness areas, as when we visit these wilderness spaces, they remind us of what the earth is like in its primal state and shows us the true foundation of our natural existence.
All the problems we have on earth today, which include poverty, inequality and lost hope are all man made, and do not exist when we express our true nature as do the living creatures in the Natural Kingdoms.
DRG, DRG Siyaya, and SA Chamber UK
Contact David White
T: +27 (0)31 767 0625
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