# Nature captivating?



## dwndrgn (Aug 14, 2003)

Have you ever found yourself staring at a leaf or a frog or some other wondrous bit of nature just marveling at it?  I can sit for long periods of time just transfixed by the beauty of the veins in a leaf or the actions of some insect that has crawled into my view.

I was almost afraid when at some point in school someone showed my photo-representations of the Mandlebrot set.  I thought I could get lost in those things for hours.

Am I just loopy?


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## Foxbat (Aug 15, 2003)

No. I don't think you are. I'm a Scot, lived here all my life..and yet...Glencoe still fills me with wonder every time I go through that place. Same when I look at the 'Pillars of Creation' (stellar nurseries photographed by the Hubble telescope)....that place just makes you feel humble.
Where I work, we have a pair of Peregrines who nest regularly. It's not that long ago, I was walking into work watching the young birds practicing all their diving and stooping before leaving the nest and going out on their own.
Sometimes we just need to open our eyes and really see.


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## littlemissattitude (Aug 15, 2003)

Sounds reasonable to me.  I have been known to stare at the clouds or at the stars at night for hours, transfixed by the beauty and complexity of the universe.  Trees intrigue me.  So does anywhere where a continent meets the ocean - those are such powerful places of transition.

In other words, dwndrgn, if you're loopy, so am I.


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## Brian G Turner (Aug 15, 2003)

Absolutely - the patterns of nature - and their myriad of expressions, can be so enchanting. How easily we can forget to look at them because they are not "immediately relevant". 

Btw - I'll second *Foxbat*'s appraisal of glencoe - drove through there on a holidy near the Isle of Skye a few years back. Amazing looking place - knobbly mountains, forests and lochs, and haunting tundral glacial valleys. The road at the southern entry to it is enchanting.


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## dwndrgn (Aug 15, 2003)

I've got to get to Scotland!  Sounds beautiful!

Oh, and thanks for saying I'm not loopy!  Or, maybe we're all just loopy together...


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## scifimoth (Aug 16, 2003)

We are probably loopy...but anyhow. I am facinated by life and the whole system of how it works. I love the connectedness of things, the patterns. Often deceptively simple on the surface, but so very intricate. We have a tendency to forget that balance is one of the most important concepts of nature and that by even messing with one tiny thing we can break an important chain....


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## Brian G Turner (Aug 18, 2003)

I don;t see it an issue of being loopy - I figure most people would think on similar lines - the trouble is, actually finding the moments to stop and do so. We live such fast and ordered lives that sometimes its easy to forget that what lies outside of our immediatel perception - deadlines, things to do, etc - is also significant.

Or something like that.


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## Twelve (Aug 18, 2003)

Yesterday, I was walking home and I saw a cat that was simply striking. I walked over to it and it seemed to know I liked it. It purred a bit as it rolled its onyx fur across my sandals. I bent down and pet it and it purred some more. Its fur felt so nice on my toes and between my fingers.

12


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## dwndrgn (Aug 18, 2003)

Now that is a pleasure, Twelve, that I probably take for granted.  We have three cats and three dogs in the house and as much as I love them - I am sure I don't appreciate their beauty and the simple quiet pleasure you can get from just enjoying them for what they are.


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## scifimoth (Aug 19, 2003)

I often take time to just watch my dogs and yes my cat as well.
I find them endlessly facinating. The way they move and interact...the way my dogs communicate with one another.
I have even written a poem about the way my spaniel looks in a pile of fall leaves (how sappy is that...LOL).


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## nemesis (Aug 21, 2003)

Nature is a Rorsharch test. We see what we want. Few revel in the beauties of nature while watching a parasitic worm burrow through the eyeball of a little Egyptian child.


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## Brian G Turner (Aug 21, 2003)

Certainly we all see different aspects of our environments in different ways. Us humans have a sense of aesthetics - of seeking pleasing experiences, and judging our sense of world by those. 

With the situation above we can empathasise with possible pain that the child may be feeling, and also the social will to help that person, as a compassionate act. That changes the emphasise of the experience of nature in such instances entirely.


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## scifimoth (Aug 22, 2003)

Nature has ever been double-edged...we have inflicted as much suffering and damage on things around us (if not more) as nature has ever inflicted on any part of humanity....


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## dwndrgn (Aug 22, 2003)

Definitely, be careful what you do as it may come back to haunt you later...

Even though the picture of a parasite feeding off of a human may sadden me for the human, I can still wonder at the diversity and adaptability of nature.  It seems to adapt or reinvent itself, use everything available and not create any waste products that can't be used elsewhere.

A wolf can *eliminate* in the woods and we might consider it to be messy but nature just moves on and something will find that pile and feed off of it or use it as a nesting site...eventually there will be nothing left.


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## GnomeoftheWest (Aug 22, 2003)

Not so with the garbage we humans spue.  What naturally builds a nest in styrophome?


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## dwndrgn (Aug 25, 2003)

Does your body secrete styrofoam?  Oh my, you might want to get that looked at!


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## Brian G Turner (Sep 20, 2003)

I managed to stop and literally look at the flowers the other day. Sometimes it's so easy to become trapped into a routine, that it's easy to forget to look beyond that narrow focus of moving from one routine task to the other. It's always nice to remember to look out.


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## dwndrgn (Sep 22, 2003)

I said:
			
		

> I managed to stop and literally look at the flowers the other day. Sometimes it's so easy to become trapped into a routine, that it's easy to forget to look beyond that narrow focus of moving from one routine task to the other. It's always nice to remember to look out.


The best is when you are completely absorbed in something mundane and all of a sudden something catches your eye...and you end up spending a few moments just enjoying a sunset or a butterfly...


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## Gnome (Sep 22, 2003)

dwndrgn said:
			
		

> The best is when you are completely absorbed in something mundane and all of a sudden something catches your eye...and you end up spending a few moments just enjoying a sunset or a butterfly...


Zen Meditation helps you increase those moments and is so easy to do.
But I find I write less when I practice it. A certain amount of apathy creeps in and calms the "need" to write.
But yes, it validates life to experience some appreciation for it.


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## Rosemary (Aug 16, 2005)

I try and go for a one hour walk early each morning, before other people are around.  Sometimes though, the hour becomes two hours!!  Then, if I take my camera it can easily become even longer.  
There is always so much to observe and to marvel at.  The native flora and fauna of the region, so rich and diverse.
Sometimes I have to forego that pleasure.  Instead I might have breakfast outside on the patio, watching the dragonfly hovering and swooping across the swimming pool, or the reflection of the water playing across the bark of a gum tree.  As a last resort I always try to get out and smell the roses or run my fingers over moss, rock and wood.  
There is always time to fit into our busy lives a small change to our routine.  One hour or 5 minutes, if you concentrate on texture, smell or colour it is surprisingly easy to feel calm and free.  A good start to a working day!


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## cyborg_cinema (Aug 16, 2005)

dwndrgn said:
			
		

> ...all of a sudden something catches your eye...and you end up spending a few moments just enjoying a sunset or a butterfly...


...some of those moments one will remember for the rest of their life.


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## Rosemary (Sep 16, 2005)

cyborg_cinema said:
			
		

> ...some of those moments one will remember for the rest of their life.


I'm hoping to see a beautiful sunset and sunrise, when I go bush walking for the weekend.  It's the wildflower season at the moment, so an added incentive for going


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## ommigosh (Sep 16, 2005)

Yes, I find the sights and sounds of nature captivating at times too.   Can lie and stare at the sky for long happy periods for instance.  

Anywhere that allows views into the far distance is especially good.

The Mandelbrot set was amazing at first  for me but nothing beats being outside and seeing "real" nature.


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## Rosemary (Sep 16, 2005)

ommigosh said:
			
		

> The Mandelbrot set was amazing at first for me but nothing beats being outside and seeing "real" nature.


Would you please explain what The Madelbrot set is/are?  I could 'search' for the answer but I am sure you would do that in a nicer way than Google or an encyclopedia.


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## dwndrgn (Sep 17, 2005)

In strict terms the Mandelbrot Set is a fractal algorythm.  In real life terms, it is a mathematical function that creates ever increasing patterns - kind of like how a crystal builds itself.  If you've ever seen high resolution images of crystals, you'll understand.  I believe they have a neat showcase of cross-sections of them at the Smithsonian.  It's really  hard to explain without showing you an image, here are some:http://hbar.servebeer.com//mandelbrot/index-1.html
I think of it as a mathematical rendering of how nature works.  You can imagine cells in a leaf building upon themselves to grow the leaf, only they have a stopping point.  They have computer programs that you can actually watch them building the graphical images...it is almost psychodelically hypnotising.


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## Rosemary (Sep 17, 2005)

Thank you very much dwndrgn. 
It's really amazing and I nearly stopped reading after 'fractal algorythm'.  Definately not a mathematical person although I did like science and botany at school, but your explanation makes sense.  I have had a look at the 'site' and added it to my favourites.  The images are amazing.  I shall go back later and maybe go through the tutorial guide!


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## Tim Bond (Sep 17, 2005)

dwndrgn said:
			
		

> In strict terms the Mandelbrot Set is a fractal algorythm. In real life terms, it is a mathematical function that creates ever increasing patterns - kind of like how a crystal builds itself. If you've ever seen high resolution images of crystals, you'll understand. I believe they have a neat showcase of cross-sections of them at the Smithsonian. It's really hard to explain without showing you an image, here are some:http://hbar.servebeer.com//mandelbrot/index-1.html
> I think of it as a mathematical rendering of how nature works. You can imagine cells in a leaf building upon themselves to grow the leaf, only they have a stopping point. They have computer programs that you can actually watch them building the graphical images...it is almost psychodelically hypnotising.


 
very cool - looks just like a DSL trip. Under certain conditions perhaps the mind can actualy 'see' fractual patterns within a spatial framework. Like - mathmaticians - einstein said he could 'see' and 'feel' his equations just as if they possessed a physical reality of their own. 

nature rules. 

how 'seperate' can our thoughts really be from the natural world from which it sprung? algorythms, negative entropy, evolution all possess a distinct overlapping with eachother and as such - how seperate are we from what we see?


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