I am not a person who thinks of “life force” or anything magical of that nature.  I do, however, feel a happiness and comfort when surrounded by an abundant variety of plants and animals in nature.  

This evening I rolled Broemmelsiek with my wife, and yes she is one of the lovely animals I love being surrounded by.  Many of the large trees are a work of art with their unique and diverse shapes.  Each one figuring out how to edge around their competitors and get to the light.  The deer were jumping off the trail and around us in many places.  Squirrels always remember that they have to get across the trail to make a bank deposit at the last possible moment.  Recently, one of them waited just a tad too long and bounced off the side of my wheel.  The grass in the fields was tall and full of such a variety of weeds and flowers.  Each field had a little old pond, choked with vegetations and filled with a chorus of frogs singing to each other.  There is a lot of love in that pond.  I can’t believe that they have a hard time finding each other.  I suppose that they must sing at the top of their lungs and hope that a pretty female eventually is impressed.  This doesn’t seem all that different than humans.  I guess frogs can’t drive Corvettes and play in rock bands.  Anyway, I wish them better luck than I used to have with all of my young ribbitting.

Being surrounded by such a never ending cacophony of life is surprisingly soothing to me.  The overlapping and continuation of life through time just feels good and is not diminished by being science based.