Natural Journal

"We are all meant to be naturalists, each in his degree, and it is inexcusable to live in a world so filled with the marvels of plant and animal life and care nothing for these things." -Charlotte Mason

I am going to try keeping a nature journal. Again.  

It just feels like the right thing to do to steward the gift I have been given in this new home and try and express my gratitude to God for being surrounded by so much beauty.  

I have only found time to sit and sketch and write two entries so far. But if we live here for as long as I imagine we will, I am bound to have a decent journal if I am consistent over years.  

I am critical of my work, even in pain as I draw, because I am not capable of making the beauty I want to make, but I am following the advice I give my students and my children, and I am doing it anyway.  

The only wrong drawing would be the one I do not even attempt for fear of failure or for pride. To quote another person whose writings have influenced me, G.K. Chesterton once said, "Anything worth doing is worth doing badly." 

God has given me new inspiration in this place, so different than my last home where my only tree that brought any birds grew sick and died.  Now I live in a forest! Imagine it! I can hear the birds arriving outside even now, pouring in from all sides. 

So I look for the means to increase my capacity to appreciate so much delight and I begin again, adding to a journal I started a few years ago that I thought I might never have the heart to come back to.  But God makes all things new and is faithful to continue every good work He begins in us.