01/08/2026
A thought for August.
(This is from my "Watching Nature" article in our parish magazine a few years back. Photos from archives)
My podcast was a documentary about American author Henry Miller. I walked and listened to tales from the Californian coast where he lived for many years but I was stopped in my tracks by a single quote. “The face of The Earth as The Creator intended it to look”. His view of Big Sur in California was of a seascape untouched by man. Cliffs and beaches, rocks and sand going about their existence of erosion and deposition just the same today as they have for thousands if not millions of years.
I often think, as we wander home from an evening walk leaving an empty beach to the long hours of the night, that however much we appreciate the beauty of nature it's not there for us. It was there before and will be there after: We happen to be around just now and so it falls to us to protect the landscape from those who would do it harm.
