Good friends and family members know me as a sojourner. I enjoy hopping into my car and driving to areas where nature, whether it be to find and restfully study a school of birds nesting, or summer grasses decayed by winter blowing in the wind, can offer a respite from my writing schedule and life in general. A shame it is for those who don't (or refuse to) recognize beauty and calm in even the most minute time period. Consider yesterday, when a business meeting placed me in central New Jersey, where development and perhaps over-development of strip shopping malls and office complexes have swallowed up open space like a sinkhole. Every so often, as I drove along busy Route 1 and its neighboring roads, I encountered many new developments, many cars, and occasionally a spot where grasses and trees live on, and animals taking advantage of peace quite a distance from the pavement. For example, on Route 1 South in the North Brunswick area, some good acreage of farm covered in remaining snow revealed no farm animals, but a host of geese assumed temporary residence, waddling slowly upon the cold ground, pecking at the earth with their beaks. Double-taking as I drove, careful not to drive off the road or into another vehicle, I marveled at a sight many (including me) see often but take for granted. I also thought to myself that eventually, perhaps, this land as well may succumb to development, and that the geese will one day pass on, not knowing the temporary joy delivered to many passersby who took time to enjoy the scene. A rejoining thought is how nature, in this the most densely populated state in the United States, lives side-by-side with construction, still reigning in even the tiniest way. Yes, the Garden State has its nature areas where wildlife and flora can be viewed in their natural habitats, well protected from the variety of activity nearby. But then there's that tiny bush along the Garden State Parkway, the tiny, budding flower at the edge of a front yard, the raccoon climbing a tree on Route 202, the nature the causes momentary, special pleasure during a busy day. Steve
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Steve Sears is a New Jersey based freelance writer
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