The Wild Life
- Molly Goldstein
- Jun 17, 2025
- 2 min read
Today, we talked about how our days no longer seem saturated with the fast-paced world of bad news, fast food, fast traffic, and in-your-face ads about insurance, medical issues, and prescriptions. For the past few weeks, we have instead become governed by the rhythms of nature: the temperature, the wind, sunrise, and nightfall. How refreshing it all is! How simple!
As I watched the birds this morning over breakfast, it struck me that this is how all of nature lives. They, too, have their circadian rhythms, and it has been joyful to observe them all the way from western Quebec to here, the eastern coast of Nova Scotia. From the shoots of new plants erupting from the soil, to the budding and leafing of trees, to the seasonal blooms of shrubs and flowers, to the salmon running upriver to spawn, to the mating season of butterflies, and the time for mothers of all animals to teach their young how to walk, swim, fly, hunt for food, and stay out of danger—it has been a privilege to witness these daily and seasonal marvels of nature.
There is so much we can learn from nature, and so much calming peace and healing we can find in it as well. This has been an unexpected benefit of our lifestyle of traveling by bicycle. We feel very much a part of the natural world around us, truly alive in it, regardless of cold or heat, wind or calm, rain or sun.
People, too, have lived their lives in Nova Scotia according to their own rhythms. The evidence of past lives blends with those who work so hard to create a life here now. We have passed many cemeteries, old churches, homes, and boats, all abandoned and weather-beaten by the relentless forces of wind and rain. I wonder who those people were and how they fared. Did they move on, or did they perish in this rough and rugged land? There are so many human stories here, but in the end, it is nature that persists and remains.
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