Be Part of Nature - Not Just a Spectator

Just finished reading the superb and enlightening book "Last Child in the woods" by Richard Louv.   Following is an excerpt from the book which is some thoughts from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. I felt immediately connected to what he was saying and it helped me in how I connect God and nature.  I also agree with some points he makes on interaction with the outdoors and how too many rules and restrictions results in a separation with nature which is a negative situation for everyone.

We're part of nature, and ultimately we're predatory animals and have a role in nature and if we separate ourselves from that, we're separating ourselves from our history, from the things that tie us together.  We don't want to live in a world where there are no recreational fisherman, where we've lost touch with the seasons, the tides, the things that connect us - to ten thousand generations of human beings that were here before there were laptops, and ultimately connect us to God.

We shouldn't be worshipping nature as God, but nature is the way that God communicates to us most forcefully.  God communicates to us through each other and through organized religion, through wise people and the great books, through music and art, but nowhere, with such texture and forcefulness in detail and grace and joy, as through creation.  And when we destroy large resources, or when we cut off our access by putting railroads along river banks, by polluting so that people can't fish, or by making so many rules that people can't get out on the water, it's the moral equivalent of tearing the last pages out of the last Bible on Earth.  It's a cost that's imprudent for us to impose upon ourselves, and we don't have the right to impose it upon our children.

I believe we have too many societal measures taking place that are creating a huge space between people and nature.  We're not supposed to be protecting nature to the extent of not interacing with its true essence.  Although don't have a great interest for fishing myself, I see it as a great way to be in nature; not as a threat to the fish.  I love to walk through the woods at my property and hope to see some tree house built by my son which isn't a damage to the trees or a dangerous feat for my child but an awesome way for him to truly interact with nature.  There are definitely areas of nature that, as a society, that we're taking advantage of and there needs to be limitations, but we still need freedom to experience nature as God intended.