The word “nature” comes from the Latin word, “natura,” meaning birth or character. …In English its first recorded use was in 1266 A.D.. “Natura,” and the personification of Mother Nature, was widely popular in the Middle Ages. The concept, places the term, Mother Nature, somewhere between the divine and the human. It has also been traced to Ancient Greece, though Earth (or “Eorthe” in the Old English period) may have been personified as a goddess. The Norse also had a goddess called Jord (or Earth). The earliest written references to the term “Mother Earth” occurred in Mycenaean Greek as Ma-ka (transliterated as ma-ga), “Mother Gaia.” Mother Nature (sometimes known as Mother Earth or the Earth-Mother), is a common personification of nature that focuses on the life-giving and nurturing aspects of nature by embodying it in the form of a mother. She was most commonly referred to as a positive figure who provided man with his annual harvest. Harvest was synonymous with life or the staff of life. Harmony in life is the coming together of things for the good of all living things. Mother Nature gener- ally teaches us harmony as she represents stability like no other aspect of life can. She is ‘generally’ the same yesterday as she is today and can be counted on for that constant unchanging presence. She is somewhat the same today as she was thousands and some would say, millions of years ago. Yes’ she has generally been looked to as a stable and reliable source of good, providing us with food, with natural elements that cloth us and house us. Most generally she protects us and is a source of life and great happiness. The ancients, however, were also aware of her anger and sometimes fickle nature. That is possibly why she is referred to as female because like a nurturing mother when her young are in danger she becomes a most fierce protector. James Rollins said that we should, “Always respect Mother Nature. Especially when she weighs 400 pounds and is guarding her baby.” Many of the ancient civilizations worshiped her in some form or another and even made human and/or other types of sacrifices to her. They definitely had respect for mother nature and her great power over their very lives by providing their harvest and at times demonstrating her great and powerful anger by causing earthquakes, lightning and thunder, etc. The philosopher Pliny remarked “… Mother Nature is punishing us…for our greed and selfishness. We torture her at all hours by iron and wood, fire and stone. We dig her up and dump her in the sea. We sink mine shafts into her and drag out her entrails—and all for a jewel to wear on a pretty finer. Who can blame her if she occasionally quivers with anger?” There have been periods of great catastrophe in the history of the world when I have thought that the term ‘mother nature’ is not only a misnomer but even a calculated and cruel name for the kind of nature that is being demonstrated. We often think of mother nature in reference to her strength and massive capacity to destroy any and all of man’s puny accomplishments. Mother, the name most frequently related to love and tender caring, and the protection of man and manchild. Whereas, ‘mother nature’ often has reference to the opposite. Richelle E. Goodrich stated in jest, “I hate it when storm clouds roll in, heralded by dazzling claps of thunder and lightning that boast an ocean of tears. This majestic performance of bad temper manages to overshadow my pathetic attempts at pouting. No one broods like Mother Nature, hence she steals all the attention I was sulking after.”
Yes! There is often humor related to her antics but sometimes there is great reason for fear and trembling. When I see or hear of great natural tragedies such as tsunamis that may devastate a whole community in a matter of minutes. A tornado that picks up a whole neighborhood and sets it down in another county, rains storms that cause the flooding of a whole city or even a state. Those are the times when I think that “Mother Nature” is a misnomer. Only when she is feeding her young and pleased with their progress and the way they are getting along with each other, is she most appropriately referred to as “Mother Nature.” Mother nature is never so strong or does she have more positive influence as when she is in a gentle mood. ”There is nothing so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength” St Francis de sales:
“…Mother Nature is punishing us…for our greed and selfishness. We torture her at all hours by iron and wood, fire and stone. We dig her up and dump her in the sea. We sink mine shafts into her and drag out her entrails—and all for a jewel to wear on a pretty finer. Who can blame her if she occasionally quivers with anger?”
—Pliny, Pg. 176”
—Robert Harris, Pompeii