Paavan guru panni pita,
 Mata dharat mahat.
              – Guru Granth Sahib Ji
If the air guides me, then water is my father and nature is my mother, and without them, I cannot survive.
Nature, our mother is a priceless gift bestowed upon us by the almighty without it, we all are incomplete. Air, water, plants, fruits, species are necessary for our sustenance. Someone has rightly said that we get to know the true value of something once it gets far away from us.
Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution till now, we have indiscriminately used nature for our benefit, to satiate our hunger. And the result of taking it for granted is in front of us landslides, droughts, floods, forest fires, tsunami, etc. Every year in some part of the world, every third country faces these problems; all these are a result of human interference in the course of nature.
The air quality index deterioration was recently in the news because of pollution and stubble burning we had to see a few days back, even when the sky was filled with smoke. We couldn’t even breathe properly, flowers wilted, water was polluted more than ever; life, in short, was a living hell as when we breathed, it was all smoke, and many people lost life because of choking.
With the outbreak of the Corona Virus – a pandemic that turned the world upside down in a matter of just a few days as many people lost lives, factories, schools, colleges, malls were shut down. Today there is lockdown everywhere; we see the world has been paused but little did we know that nature has started to heal itself in due course of time. Without any cars on roads and factories being shut down, there is no more pollution. The ozone layer is healing, pollution is reducing, and the quality of air is becoming much better than ever. Trees are no more being cut, and we are not harming animals; it is truly a plus point.
Nature has its own way of making us realise that we are indeed indebted to it for its greatness. In the rat race to survive, we have forgotten to live and enjoy it. The beauty of nature is that it is selfless.
Call Covid 19 a blessing in disguise for nature or a curse for humans. But indeed, with its outbreak, nature is far more at its best than ever. The sukhna lake is clear than ever, the roads, the view from the roof today is more mesmerising than it ever was.
The reset button forced upon us has helped nature to replenish and heal itself. The flowers are blooming and looking more beautiful, fruits are ripe than ever, butterflies with their colourful wings look like fairies flying in the sky, plants are greener than ever, pigeons and birds are clearly visible, and their sound is heard apart. Nature gives us calmness and positivity; it helps us learn from it and grow, so now it is the time for us to learn from nature to appreciate its beauty, protect it, nurture it, and let it grow.
Though it is a tough time for everyone in the world, caged in our houses, we together can surely fight it through. It’s the law of the natural world that what comes will go too, so today, if it’s dark, then sunlight will surely come too, but we have to be patient and wait and learn from tress to stand tall upright even in the fiercest storm. Nature is truly our best teacher, though it speaks less but has much for those who lend an ear to it. Until then, we all have to stay at home safely and do our best to listen to nature and learn a lot from it.
Spend time gardening, enjoy the natural world, and appreciating it. Life is a roller coaster ride; no one knows what is ahead, so let’s enjoy today the greenery in front of us. All we have is today to live and cherish its memories, but with nature in the picture, they last forever. So indeed, this virus is a boon to nature that helps us to reconnect with it.
