It's Not Natural

Hello CandleCalmers,

We hope you're all well?

Touching upon something we said we'd do a little while ago, which was to keep our blogs open and not specific to candles, we'd like to share an opinion in this blog.

Maybe it is slightly related to what we do, as being environmentally friendly is a strong guiding principle, but this is most definitely not a candle blog. Furthermore, we hope it provokes your own thought process. 

Before you read on, at CandleCalm, we are true advocates for action in decreasing the use of plastics and reducing our CO2 emissions. This blog does not condone any practice or substance that induces harm on the environment.

I (Dad) was scrolling through Instagram the other day, looking for some marketing inspiration, when I stumbled upon a post from a 'Save the Earth' page. It was a picture of an abandoned and overgrown subway station with the words plastered over the picture "In the end, nature will win".

This post immediately had my mind scrambling away, throwing up images of a post-apocalyptic world, where every man-made structure had fallen to the growth of whatever dwelled beneath. If you've ever seen the film 'I am Legend' you'll know what I mean.

It turned out to be quite a peaceful look into what I honestly believe is our inevitable future, maybe not in the next 10 generations, but inevitably at some stage. No, I'm not talking zombie infested landmass, I'm on about the overgrown structures part.

Before I digress, let me get back on track.

In the end, nature will win?

This sentence obviously implies that the absence of humans would allow the triumph of 'nature', which would also imply that we are in some kind of battle or race with nature, not part of it; or that's how I read it.

Many people believe that we, the human race, are destroying the world, and they'd be correct. Our actions do have a direct impact on the health of this amazing planet, but so many also think that we have disconnected from nature, and this couldn't be further from the truth.

As far as our species, time and evolution is concerned, things are perfectly on track. There is no other dimension or alternative, there is only ever this very moment, the here and now. The universe is simply doing its thing. We are no more and no less disconnected from nature than we were 10,000 years ago because being connected to nature is to exist, not counted as our interaction with our surroundings.

Nature, believe it or not, is not all things green. As much as we'd like it to be, the natural state of things is a fleeting moment in time, a temporary situation determined by second to second changing atmospherics, and only held at a single point in time, usually one that suits our desires or needs.

Would we accept the completely natural time of the Ice Age or would we long for a disconnection?

Would we accept the completely natural time of the chaotic, fiery mass of planet Earth prior to being a host to life or would we long for a disconnection?

Why? They are both completely natural occurrences in a singular point of time and evolution of our planet.

People sometimes say that we have evolved past being natural and at one with the world.

We all carry beautiful thoughts of sharing the world with the plants, trees and animals, where the world can heal and we extend our time on this truly amazing planet as Sapiens and as much we'd love to see and experience this, it doesn't fit with how we and the world have evolved.

Evolution, regardless of what state the world is in and what we do, continues.

Time, regardless of what state the world is in and what we do, continues. 

These two occurrences change everything. 

The world has never been, and never will be a green safe haven for 7 billion people and counting. It can, and has been a safe haven for global populations around the billion mark, but that's where the real problems began. We had no choice but to industrialise.

Until the 1800s the world's population grew slowly for thousands of years. In 1820 the world's population reached one billion. In the early 1970s, the world's population reached three billion. In 1999, less than 30 years later, the population doubled to six billion. We're on the cusp of reaching 8 billion now.

What people call a 'disconnection from nature' has allowed the global population to grow in abundance, to a point of near unsustainability. It is not unnatural, it is the way of things as we become more and more humanised and cherish life.

We started of thousands and thousands of years ago, in pretty much the same bodies as our Ape cousins. Communication was limited, hand tools were not used and we gathered food from the forest floor and trees. An evolutionary fork in our brains, somewhere along the line of primate breeding gave birth to the Homos Sapiens.

At what point did we evolve past out natural connection with the world? Was it when we began to communicate? Was it when we planted our first seed and learned how to grow crop? Was it when we first used money or struck oil? You see, people who say that we have disconnected from nature can't identify a single off-road during our time on this planet, and that's because one doesn't exist. We don't believe in the agricultural, industrial or digital revolutions. We believe in the agricultural, industrial and digital evolutions.

We are caught in natures absolute wonder, and we constantly evolve. We have the intelligence to look for life on other planets, but yet we can't promote it on our own planet, all at the whim of evolution. This is not an unnatural act, this is a result of evolution, our inherited urge to progress and move forward, not backwards. It's all in our DNA, and therefore it is the absolute natural way of things. 

To purposely halt our progress would not be an act for or against evolution, it would be an act, and yes it may well place a band aid on what is perceived to be a cancer in the world, but time and evolution continues.

We can't simply freeze time and evolution as a result of planting thousands of trees and/or not using that plastic bag at the shopping mall, and yes, as great these actions are, even more so on a collective basis, our beautiful planet still heads for a cataclysmic event, whether it be down to weather, shifts in the tectonic plates, the Sun's behaviour, space and debris situations and global over-population, there will always be something that risks our existence beyond that of the damage we do and can correct slightly without mass de-population.

It is important that we all do the little things in order to prolong our time here.

We've seen how clear skies have become, marine and mammals returning to habitats, lower CO2 emissions and less congestion as a result of these lockdowns, but it is not indefinite. The Universe and time will ultimately do it's thing.

We're most definitely not a cancer on this planet. We're are a completely beautiful and natural occurrence and we act out our ever evolving abilities and intelligence, for the good or bad, we act.

Do you think we've evolved past our natural state on this planet?

If so, we'd love to hear your thoughts.

Comment below.

Have a great week CandleCalmers.

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