Loving the Color of Nature

Mother Nature is the grand creator.

From the bountiful trees that produce the oxygen we desperately need to breathe, the river and streams we drink, foods we eat, and medicine we use to treat. She bestows upon us the gift of life, despite the unappreciation and mistreatment from the humans she graciously supports. Selflessly, nature continues to provide everything we need to survive and thrive.

As much as Mother Nature loves me, I love her more. When I feel out of place trying to find purpose, been overwhelmed with pain from a broken heart, or incredibly stressed out from the challenges in life, the great outdoors rejuvenates me. She calms my worried mind, guides my lost soul, and heals my wounds.

Nature is full of beautiful animals, refreshing smells, eye-catching sights, and relaxing sounds. But out of all these things, for me, the most joyful thing nature gives is the gift of color. Yep, R O Y G B I V or in nerd talk, the visible spectrum (happy dance).

The little things we often take for granted, like rainbows after a thunderstorm, the sunrise and sunset, colorful desert flowers, and the Aurora Borealis, give me peace of mind.

Loving Rainbows

Rainbows are my absolute favorite natural phenomenon. I am attracted to them like a proton is to an electron. I cannot tell you how many times I stopped driving and pulled over to gaze at a rainbow. The way those rays of light stretch across the atmosphere, with no end in sight, is pure delight.

Surely, you can relate to my love for rainbows? Indeed, I never heard someone say they hate rainbows and never want to see one again.

Living in the desert for about five years now, I've witnessed some spectacular rainbows. Monsoon season is our peak rainbow time here in Tucson, and some of the views are so captivating they take your breath away. The natural lighting from the sky after a rainstorm passes here is picture-perfect (pun intended). Capturing the vibrant colors through a camera lens that you see with your eyes is hard for me, but not for Dylan Martin.

Scrolling through Facebook one day, I came across a picture of a rainbow taken during monsoon season by Dylan Martin that took blew my mind. This picture below is my numero uno because you can see both a rainbow and a thunderstorm in the same freaking shot. His nature shots are the best I've seen, hands down. He knows how to capture the essence of Mother Nature.

When I am sad or depressed about the health of our planet, I visit Dylan's page and, from the beauty of his photos, find reassurance that things are going to be okay.

And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow. -G. K. Chesterton

Loving the Desert

I must admit when I first moved from Texas to Arizona, from hot and humid to scorching hot and dry, I missed the rain and green things like grass and trees. With passing time, almost five years of living in the desert, I cherish this environment and never want to live somewhere flat again. I love the majestic feelings I get when hiking in the mountains, the thorny plants, diverse wildlife, and endless good hair days.

Speaking of poky things, the brilliant reds, yellows, blues, pinks, and purples that bloom on the cactus in springtime is a pleasure to my eyes. Unfortunately, the flowers don't stay open for long, so when you see one blossoming, it is best to take a picture or video right then and there. The best desert video I have seen is the Grand Canyon music video by Puscifer.

This digital masterpiece beautifully captures the majesty of the Arizona Desert.

I stumbled across this video for the first time in 2016 while listing to a Puscifer playlist on YouTube. Not only did the lyrics and music catch my attention, but the cinematography blew me away. In this video, you observe cactus flowers opening and closing and the billions of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy that light the darkness, all in tune with the beat of the song.

I watch this video at least once a month and instantly feel the desert calm my stressed skin.

Hope as far as one can see .

Witnessing the majesty .

Standing on the edge of forever.

Loving the Aurora Borealis

Moving on from rainbows and the desert, I'd like to share the number one natural phenomenon that brings me joy—the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights. What's crazy is I never even knew the lights existed until I took a cruise to Alaska in the summer of 2012. I was thumbing through some calendars at a local gift shop in Ketchikan and found an Aurora themed one. The vibrant colors of each image immediately caught my attention.

No shocker there, right?

I turned to the back page of the calendar to see a section describing what creates the Aurora Borealis. I was fascinated to learn the magnetic iron cores in our poles combine with charged particles of nitrogen and oxygen produce these magnificent colors that dance in the night sky. I am a chemist, too, so discovering the physical mechanism that creates the Northern Lights was captivating.

Although I have yet to see the lights in person, which is on my bucket list, I live vicariously through an Instagram Page called Aurora Borealis Observatory. Everyone that follows this page is fascinated with the Aurora; we connect through our love for Mother Nature.

I find myself scrolling, oohing, and awwing when disconnected from reality or in an artistic funk. The images instantly ground me and get my creative juices flowing.

My wish is one day, humans will realize that without Mother Nature, life as you know it would cease to exist. After all, the earth's oceans, plants, and animals lived without humans for millions of years. We, on the other hand, cannot be without oxygen, water, and food. There never has or never will be a time in history or the future that our species will prevail in the absence of Mother Nature.

She nurtures life through color and strengthens our ability to show love and appreciation.