{"id":40659,"date":"2026-09-22T00:35:45","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T05:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=40659"},"modified":"2026-09-22T00:35:45","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T05:35:45","slug":"seasons-reveal-a-living-nature-that-defies-our-efforts-at-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=40659","title":{"rendered":"Seasons reveal a living nature that defies our efforts at control"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As I locked the door of my office to drive home Monday, the parking lot was deserted and quiet. It was only 7 p.m., but the last light of sunset was almost completely gone.<\/p>\n

Something in the air felt different tonight.<\/p>\n

It was getting dark a little bit earlier. I noticed flashes of lightning in the distance. And then it hit me. There\u2019s always a moment in the early autumn when the air feels different and I know change is almost here.<\/p>\n

Autumn is coming. It\u2019s not here yet, but it\u2019s coming. I feel it.<\/p>\n

For years, this annual moment has been evidence that nature\u2019s wheel is still turning, just as it always has. The wheel has oriented us for months to the growth and the green of summer and it\u2019s about to push us to the beautiful harvest time \u2014 a time of reds and golds and browns \u2014 that comes just before nature goes dormant until time for another rebirth.<\/p>\n

This almost imperceptible feeling in the air always gives me comfort. It reassures me that everything that\u2019s happened for many millennia before I was born is still happening.<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve gotten older, it\u2019s also felt like evidence that nature is marking off another year for me \u2014 claiming just a bit more of the life I was granted when I was born many years ago.<\/p>\n

Nothing about this felt frightening. Everything felt normal. Everything was as it should be. I was where I should be. Something much larger than me was in control.<\/p>\n

Despite all of man\u2019s efforts to control nature \u2014 to control our environment \u2014 nature was still in control. The return of this feeling lets me know once again that the God of nature is still supreme.<\/p>\n

We humans don’t like to acknowledge any rulers other than us.<\/p>\n

As a species, we see ourselves at the top of the food chain. As nations or tribes or clans, we grasp for power over others. As individuals, most of us feel driven to control others. Even the few who aren’t trying to control others are often loathe to say, “I am subject to a power that is greater than I.”<\/em><\/p>\n

For many centuries, humans have been wrestling with nature for control over our environment.<\/p>\n

We built houses to get out of the rain and to hold off the worst of the cold. After the Industrial Age got here, we started building machines to give us more control. We figured out better ways to heat our homes in the cold months. Then we figured out how to refrigerate the air in the hot months of summer. It would have seemed like magic to those who had lived before.<\/p>\n

We designed and built machines that helped us conquer distance. Our machines could whisk us from one place to another, whether the machines were cars or trains or airplanes. And inside each of these machines, we engineered a comfortable environment to keep the external forces of nature away.<\/p>\n

In a hundred different ways, our machines have freed us from having to live with the discomforts that nature once routinely threw at us. It is an objectively good thing for the health and comfort and well-being of billions of people around this planet.<\/p>\n

But it’s also objectively true that our machines have left us increasingly isolated from the natural ecosystem that we’re a part of. And we have lost something because of that.<\/p>\n

For most of us, seasons are about nothing but weather now. My house is about the same temperature year-round. The same is true for my office. My home and my workplace \u2014 and my car \u2014 are perfectly controlled environments that protect me from having to face nature.<\/p>\n

Fewer and fewer of us have anything to do with raising crops or nurturing food animals. Planting seasons and harvest seasons are just quaint memories of what other people used to do. Those are things for specialists today who are mostly far away from us.<\/p>\n

If we could, we would probably engineer life to be perfect all the time. What would our perfect temperature be? Maybe 75 degrees Fahrenheit? Or 80? 85? Let’s vote on it.<\/p>\n

And rain? Who needs that. It’s always bright sunshine and clear skies inside our weather domes. (Remember the serious proposals for those?) Some even want to bring down reflected sunlight to illuminate the nights \u2014 so night becomes just like the day.<\/p>\n

Without realizing it, we have bought into the notion that nature can be controlled \u2014 should be controlled \u2014 and that our comfort and convenience matter most.<\/p>\n

I don’t want to give up our nice houses. I don’t want to lose heat or air conditioning. I don’t want to lose any of these comforts that have made our lives objectively better.<\/p>\n

But on an evening when I’ve smelled the upcoming turn of another autumn, I’m reminded of what we’ve lost by losing touch with our physical environments. For the first time in my life, I’m feeling vaguely that I’ve lost something by not being in touch with the land and the seasons and the cycles that my ancestors were once so familiar with.<\/p>\n

But here’s what I also see.<\/p>\n

Nature is still there. Even when we try to shut it out, it’s still in control. It still operates just as it always has. It still whispers truths about creation and about life \u2014 and about death.<\/p>\n

I don’t pretend to know how to balance my need for comfort with my need to be in touch with nature. I don’t pretend that I’m going to give up the comforts of modern life.<\/p>\n

But I also know I’ve lost something by not being in touch with the land on which I live and not paying more attention to nature’s cycles.<\/p>\n

To every thing there is a season \u2014 and a time for every purpose under heaven.<\/p>\n

That’s true for the land. For the weather. For humanity itself.<\/p>\n

It’s true for me. And for you. Nature gave us birth\u00a0and nature will reclaim us one day. And this is good news, not something to be feared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I locked the door of my office to drive home Monday, the parking lot was deserted and quiet. It was only 7 p.m., but the last light of sunset was almost completely gone. Something in the air felt different tonight. It was getting dark a little bit earlier. I noticed flashes of lightning in Keep Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1x9iR-azN","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40659"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40680,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40659\/revisions\/40680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}