indeed we are an abstraction of nature, thought is a profound abstraction and provides us the concept of abstraction itself. Perhaps flowers are a better metaphor as they are in a process of going out, and the human mind looks within... I think our first evolution was amoeba and after fish we became apes then human, and now perhaps at some point we might transcend our physical stuff and be only thought...
I didn't do a very good job. You said it better!