Mother Nature is One Hot Chick

I spend a lot of time out here in the Northwest looking at, smelling, and touching the natural world all around me...so many new plants, rock types, odors, and creatures new to my experience.
When I was a kid growing up in Minnesota, I paid attention to Mother Nature but, like all children, I only paid attention to the things about "mom" that pertained directly to my own comfort and needs. I knew mud made a bee sting stop hurting...and salt made a leech from the river let go of my skin. I knew which berries (and some flowers) that were good to eat and where they grew, which bugs not to touch, and where the best swimming holes were located. Most of the rest, however, escaped my attention. As I grew older, the concerns of my family and friends and my social life took preeminence and nature faded into the background.
Funny thing, though, about getting older...you start to notice the world around you once more, maybe because you realize you are closer to returning to this earth from which you once sprang forth like a green leafy sprout. You start paying attention to the weather patterns, the comings and goings of the various creatures, the change of the seasons...or lack of change if you move from a four season place like Minnesota to a sorta two season place like here on the coast of Washington. I feel my senses opening and blossoming in this new place and I do my best to see, feel, and breathe it in every day.
I guess I was either distracted or loaded much of my younger years, caught up in the world of humans, and I forgot about the real world around me, hosted by that lovely lady with the beautiful body we know as Mother Nature...and she is well worth spending time with, let me tell you! Take a moment outside today to look up, down, and around at the wonders right there before you...this is an amazing and beautiful place we all live in...remember to love it, even for just a moment or two each day...starts the day out nicer, that is for certain. Have a most lovely day, my friends...smell a flower or kiss a tree or just flirt with that Nature Mama a little bit, okay?