Unity Journal

My first thought when looking at this writing assignment was another ¿Unity Journal,¿ didn¿t we already write on of those? It hit me, however, that the first one was early last semester and may have been one of our first writing assignments. It was a little different too, the topic was unity in yourself and now it is unity with yourself and nature. Things change? Yes, a lot has changed from the time we first started writing, but within us hopefully the unity has grown stronger and spread to our view of nature.

The writings by Alan Watts struck me as most interesting. I was first taken by the fictions he presents. ¿That man, individually and collectively, should aspire to be top species and put himself in control of nature.¿ (514) This statement is the foundation of all fictions we tried to part with over the semester. As we learned to ¿Only Connect!...Live in fragments no longer,¿ we saw that we can be one with nature. (848) I especially experienced this during the Waller Creek Cleanup day. We are certainly part of the world around us, and it is vital that we take care of it. Now I won¿t say that we are the exact same as nature, but we must remember that ¿Distinction is not separation.¿ (515) Unifying with nature can give us the best feeling of peace and completion. The times that we spent meditating at the Turtle Pond, Waller Creek and other locations on and off campus were some of the more calm moments of this year. It is not just the idea of meditating, but really it is the atmosphere that you are in. Even on a campus as packed as this, we discovered that there are places that allow you to connect with nature and forget you are in a city.

So now, with my last journal ever, I do not struggle to ¿Hammer your thoughts into unity.¿ (843) It is very clear that unity and being complete cannot be done without nature and without a thorough understanding of self. This year we have gained these perspectives but there is still much to be done. I know that a year from now I will still wander into the architecture courtyard and take my time walking by the turtle pond. The little things that nature gives us we must appreciate which is what I learned over the course of this year.