Nature Journal: Part 14

For my fourteenth nature journal, I chose to write about my experience in Purdy, Missouri over thanksgiving break. I have had the opportunity to spend six of the last eight summers serving at a camp in Purdy. Although I have not had the opportunity to spend my last couple summers at camp because of school and work commitments, I try to stop by whenever I have a chance. With a population of just over 1,000, the city of Purdy is a speck on a map. However, it is home to a view unlike any I have ever seen. Down the road from the cabins is a bluff that overlooks the Missouri countryside. Hundreds of feet below my feet is a river that flows into the Lake of the Ozarks. In front of me is a cornfield that extends as far as the eye can see. I arrived at camp just before sun set and I watched as the sun dip below the horizon and sink into the sea of gold that was the corn. As I sat there on the rocks, I could not help but imagine the world around me. I have had the opportunity to grow up in the city of Omaha, Nebraska, and attend a school in Fort Worth, Texas, but neither of these cities has exposed me to nature as pure as the countryside of Purdy, Missouri. While the town of Purdy is decades behind Omaha and Fort Worth, it has yet to be sullied by the marks of industrialization. I often wonder if the sacrifices we have made for simplicity are worth the loss of the environment around us.