We are part of nature and nature is part of God and both nature and God should be part of our everyday lives.

My sediments exactly.

Also, I like that you see the natural minutia of cities–I have experienced that pleasant (and sometimes unpleasant) zap of natural event (not that cities are unnatural in and of themselves–if, as you say, we’re part of nature, etc., then cities, by virtue of being the work of our natural hands are natural as well) in concrete environments. One vivid memory–walking home from BYU and hearing the terror-filled chirps of sparrows in a hedge, then witnessing a kestrel fly out of it, clutching a sparrow in its talons. The sparrow’s head hung down, its beak parted.

Back in the day, the largest community of garter snakes I’ve ever seen used to emerge in spring on the south-facing bank of the trail running along the irrigation canal, just above the botany pond. Coils of them, some wound up together. The woods along that trail also had squirrels. And of course, the quail. Those were just the obvious things.

I always appreciated that BYU allowed such a trimming of life to fringe the campus. I took that trail as often as I could. Beside the wildlife, it was where I was most likely to run into Hugh Nibley.

But! I have to say that for some of us who grew up immersed in nature, neck deep in turtles, snakes, hickory trees, white oaks, sassafrass, mushrooms, frogs, blue jays, Japanese beetles, earthworms, poison ivy, flying squirrels, pine needles, crawfish towers, etc., being removed for too long from those depths to the heavily developed can cause pain and illness. I know whereof I speak.

And I would love to see cities designed and developed that took into account the needs of other species, allowing habitation for a greater range of biodiversity. Pale Male, the redtail hawk that established a dynasty of city-dwelling redtail hawks living in New York City, the peregrine falcons that (used to) nest on a building in SLC, raccoons in the sewer drains, barn owls living in the bell towers of old schools, all that little stuff Theric mentions–just bare scratchings of what’s possible. This desire of mine arises not only out of concern for maintaining the spectrum of animalia–the “not us” of the world–but out of concern over the emotional diversity contact with animals gives rise to in humans.

It’s all about relation.

[Link in "Pale Male"--quite a story there.]

I was thinking about fractals earlier today in the pattern of a strange plant that many people plant in their yards near my house, its puffy leaves spinning into infinity.