Larson Institute of Self-Mastery » Nature

Reverence for Nature

Garold N. Larson — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 07:08:25 +0000

When I was 11 years old I lived in paradise. Well, to me it was paradise. We really lived in an old farm house out in the country in Arizona. The nearest town was several miles away. There were farms surrounding our home. Cotton fields on one side, sugar beets on the other, and a cow pasture across the road. When I wasn’t playing in a barn or swimming in a ditch I was out shooting with my brother’s BB gun. He had a Daisy BB gun, the kind you cock once and shoot. I got to be a pretty good shot with that thing. Once in a while I would shoot a dove or a quail, and I would pluck ‘em and cook ‘em and eat ‘em. But after a while I began to shoot other birds, mostly sparrows – just for the fun of it. I don’t know how many birds I shot but it was a lot.

The Trap

One day I was exploring around and found an animal trap – the kind where you open the steel jaws when you set it. I had seen some squirrels from time to time playing out back behind the old barn. There was a big mesquite tree and the squirrels loved to eat the beans that grew on the tree. I thought to myself, “I’m going to catch me one of those squirrels.” So I took the trap and placed it under the tree. I gathered some of the mesquite beans and place them on the trap as bait. Then I carefully set the trap. I was so excited to catch a squirrel.

From time to time I went to check my trap and each time there was nothing in it. Pretty soon the sun went down and I had to go to bed. Gosh I sure wanted to catch a squirrel but no such luck.

The Horror

The next morning I jumped out of bed and ran out to check my trap. As I got closer to it I could see there was an animal in it. Something was wiggling. I was so excited I ran even faster. As I got close to the trap my heart sank. I couldn’t believe what I saw there in my trap. I was filled with horror. There were two little black eyes looking up at me – almost as if to say, “So you’re the one who did this to me!” There in my trap was a bird with both of its legs broken. I don’t know what kind of bird it was but it was bigger than a sparrow, and it was in pain.

I thought to myself, “What am I going to do? There’s no way I can fix this little bird’s legs. If I just let it go it will never survive. It won’t be able to get food. It won’t be able to sit on a branch. It won’t be able to walk. It will just suffer and die a horrible death. Oh what have I done?”

Do the Right Thing

I remembered that my father had taught me that you should never let an animal suffer – that the right thing to do was to put it out of its misery. Oh, how was I going to put this bird out of its misery? I saw that nearby was an irrigation canal, the one that I had swam in so many times. I then knew what I had to do. I carefully opened the trap and took the little bird up in my hands. The poor thing was in terrible pain – all because of me!

I carried the bird over to the canal, knelt down at the water’s edge, looked that bird in the eye and apologized for what I was about to do. I gathered up my courage and slowly placed the bird under the water. I could feel it struggle in my hands. Then it struggled less and less. Finally, after what seemed like and eternity, it quit struggling and its little heart quit beating. It’s one thing to kill a bird 30 yards away with a BB gun. It’s quite another to have it die right in your hands. I wept as I lifted the little bird out of the water and realized what I had just done.

I took the little body, dug a small grave and buried it there on the banks of the irrigation canal. I made a promise to myself right there that I would never needlessly kill anything again. And since that day I haven’t.

The Lesson Learned

I have tried to teach my sons the same lesson. Life is sacred and we should have respect and reverence for it. It wasn’t right to take your magnifying glass and burn up ants with it. You don’t squish bugs just for the fun of it. You don’t throw frogs against trees. You don’t tie firecrackers to cat’s tails. You don’t pull the wings off flies or treat any of God’s creations in a disrespectful or cruel way. And you don’t shoot little birds.

I fear that some day I will stand before God to be judged and there, standing beside him, will be 30 little birds all with their little wings pointed at me and saying, “Yes, that’s him, he’s the one who did it!” And what am I going to say?

You may wonder why I am sharing this with you. Is this really part of Personal Development? I think it is. I believe the world would be a better place if each of us had a respect and reverence for Nature. I feel those who respect God’s creations will also respect the grandest of all of God’s creations, Mankind. Thank you.

Life – Don’t Miss It!

Garold N. Larson — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 07:50:34 +0000

Good morning! I’m standing in the foothills above my home. Just last night it was pouring rain. We had a big storm come through. This morning as I stand in the foothills it’s not raining on me, but as I look across the valley I see heavy rain and lightning flashes from one end of the valley to the other. What I’m witnessing is an amazing and wonderful light show. It makes me feel like God is putting a show on for me. It’s a delightful thing to watch. Wow, there went another one! It lights up the whole sky and valley. It’s a beautiful thing.

What does this have to do with self-mastery? Probably nothing except for the fact that if I wasn’t up here on my hike I wouldn’t get to see this. There are a lot of things I wouldn’t get to see if I didn’t get out every morning and go hiking. I get to see a number of amazing things that I think a lot of people don’t see. I feel blessed for it and I feel that’s one of the reasons that it makes it worth it for me to get up early and to get outside and exercise my mind and body. It allows me to be among nature and not miss the unexpected and wonderful things in life like this wonderful light show this morning.

Master Yourself, Master Your Life

Thank you.

The First Snow of the Season

Garold N. Larson — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:04:56 +0000

Good morning! As I mentioned recently, part of my quest to achieve self-mastery is to exercise every day, no matter what. As I looked outside this morning I saw that it was pouring rain – cold rain! I must admit that thoughts of climbing back into bed went through my mind. How was I supposed to go hiking up the mountain in this?

Then I thought of my amazing wife. I call her amazing because she is! She goes out running every morning with her running partner Ramona, no matter what. Rain, sleet, snow, wind, darkness or extreme cold doesn’t stop her. As I looked out the window this morning I knew that my wife was already out there in this miserable storm doing a 10-mile run.

So with that thought I forced myself to get on my hiking gear and drove up to the trailhead for my hike. I pulled on my rain poncho and headed up the trail. By this time it was beginning to get light.

Yesterday I shared some photos of the beautiful fall colors I encountered on a recent hike. Today I was met first with rain and then with SNOW! Since the leaves haven’t all fallen yet they were covered with a heavy coating of wet snow. This weighed the branches down causing them to bend across the trail. It made it a challenge for me to plow through the branches that were blocking my path.

Of course the wet snow soaked my legs and arms that weren’t covered by my rain poncho. So I was cold and wet and you would think – miserable. But I wasn’t miserable! In fact I had a great time. It was a fabulous morning. I loved the crisp air and the snow covered trees.

There is something magical about the combination of exercising your body and being out in nature. You just can’t help but feel good. I noticed as I came down the mountain that I had a huge grin on my face. It came so easily and naturally. It just couldn’t be helped.

It makes me wonder how much depression in the world could be alleviated by being on a program such as this. Instead of drugs and counseling, perhaps all that many people need is daily exercise and a daily experience among God’s creations. What a concept! Maybe you should give it a try.

Have a great day!

Step Back and See the Big Picture

Garold N. Larson — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:05:14 +0000

Good morning! Have you ever taken a digital photo and zoomed in on it until all you could see were a bunch of little squares? As you look this closely at a picture you will find that it’s difficult to tell that it’s even a picture. When you are so close you just see a bunch of simple squares of different shades and colors with no apparent order or meaning. It’s not until you zoom out from the picture that you actually see the image. Here is an example. Can you tell what this is?

Now here is the entire photo:

The close-up was of my face. I’m the baby in my father’s arms. What a difference it makes to step back and take in the whole picture.

My hike this morning reminded me of this. I live in my little house on my little street and that becomes my world. Sometimes I forget there is a whole big world out there. When I go hiking in the morning I go up the side of the mountain by my home and suddenly I have this magnificent view of my whole community. I see things I never could have seen at the street level. There are ponds in my community that I didn’t know existed. There are neighborhoods, golf courses, and churches that I didn’t know were there. It’s a whole different perspective when I get the Big Picture from on the mountain.

You’ve heard of the saying:

You can’t see the forest for the trees.

Sometimes we get that way with our own lives. We are so into our own little world that we don’t realize that there is a whole, big world out there. We are blinded by the things that are so close to us.

I find that I periodically need to get away from the nitty gritty details of my life. I need to step back and look at the Big Picture to get a true perspective of life.

One of the ways my wife Lisa and I do this is to go away to an educational conference every year or so. It is held in another city several hours from our home. It’s called Education Week and as the name implies, it is a week long conference and is held at a university. They have classes all day long each day on subjects like marriage, parenting, money management, stress management, journal writing – you name it and they have a class for it. We stay there the whole week and take all kinds of classes together, taking voracious notes in each one.

Some people think we’re strange to do this with our precious time, yet we have found it well worth it. And every time we have done it and are on our way home, I always get the feeling that I have been lifted high above the detailed cares of the world and have a grand, panoramic view of life. It helps me get my life in perspective.

I suggest that you find ways to step away from the details of your life and allow yourself to see the Big Picture. Take a break. Go on a needed vacation. Retreat to the mountains or the beach or the desert and take time to think and ponder. Let’s not miss the beautiful forest while we are staring at the roots of the trees.