"How strange that nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude!" - Emily Dickinson

Photo: Rachel DeHayes, Bird Island at Audubon Park

On days when I wake not to the sound of my buzzing alarm, but rather to the chirping of busy birds in the tress of my backyard, I just know that I'm Snow White. I rise from bed, open the shades, the sun pours into my open room, and it is going to be a good day. 

I never cease to be amazed by the power of nature. Even though I live on a zero-lot line property, up several flights of stairs, with no direct exit to the outdoors, those very first sounds of nature remind me that the world is bigger than my little plot of land. Most days I have to go out of my way to indulge in its beauty, the closest outlet being a 2-mile walk around Audubon Park, but in that short time out of my day, I always feel better. 

We've created a world where we could go weeks without really experiencing nature - and trust me, that happens to the best of us - but even this born-to-be-a-city-slicker-self knows that a moment alone with nature is a therapy and catharsis money could never buy.