Beauty is a bit of a fickle term. Many have tried to pin down exactly what makes something or someone beautiful, but it is seldom that one thing is undeniably beautiful or that something is wholly not-beautiful, or grotesque. Makeup and hair care products claim that their products come closer to the reality of beauty. Preferences vary between warm, sunny scene’s and cold, snowy paradise.

This summer I took a brief trek through part of Banff National Park in Alberta Canada. The sights views from the Sentinel Pass and from above Lake Louise were truly breathtaking and, of course, can definitely be considered beautiful. There is something about pure, uninterrupted nature that is connected to the very being of mankind.

Now, as I head off to my second year of college, I know to expect to feel a yearning to be back in the mountains. I know to remember the trees and forests and the sounds and songs that accompanied the summer. Taking for granted the power of nature no more, I have realized now that the forest, and nature in general, takes away stress and is part of the beauty of this world. Waking up to birds sweetly singing and a breeze gently rocking the treetops is true calmness, true beauty.

I like to think that true beauty rests in the lack of actual stress in a situation. Beauty is calm. Beauty lies in subtlety. The trees that tenderly watch over the forest floor. The budding flower pushing its way into the world through the earth’s flesh. The absolute uniqueness of every branch, piece of bark, lichen. Every part of pristine nature, whether it be slow, trickling stream or a tiny flower pedal triggers a register of beauty in our minds.

Henry David Thoreau tells about how the natural world is a necessity in the life of the human race and John Muir contends that “the gross heathenism of civilization has generally destroyed nature, and poetry, and all that is spiritual.”

They are not saying that in order to feel the spiritual levelness of the natural world, people need to travel to distant attractions like Banff or Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon, but I think rather to notice and appreciate the subtle beauty that lies in all nature. The natural world has an uncanny ability to ground the soul. The pieces that are left need to be kept sanctuary and not destroyed if for nothing but the sanity of the human race.

So rather than looking for the newest, best television show or movie, take note of the beauty in nature’s subtlety. Mother nature keeps the freshness in life as the trees give oxygen to the air.