Working with Nature

Working with nature is at once the easiest and hardest thing to de because it requires being rather than doing. For many people this is a new experience. One cannot ‘do’ nature, only ‘be in’ nature.

It is not about how we force nature to listen to us. It’s how we are able to suspend our ego sufficiently that we can listen with grace while doing nothing. It is how we shift from doing to being. I think Anna does this wonderfully in the video clip below.

It’s interesting how we never say we are walking on nature, but walking in nature. We get back into nature not back onto it. Nature is, therefore, an immersive experience like taking a bath in fermions and bosons. We cannot understand the magic of a bath if we just stare at a vessel filled with warm water. Just as we get that ‘ah-ha’ moment when we slip into the warm water of the bath experience, so an even greater sense of letting go envelopes us when we let nature wash over us by simply being.

That is how we work with nature. We allow ourselves to let go, relax, and surrender to it. For many people, however, this is a hard thing to do. Life has become fragmented and separate. Devices have invaded the mindset to the extent that people struggle to ever let go anymore. When was the last time you sighed out loud and just gave it up and let go even for a half hour?

Just this morning I was being with nature, strolling on a mostly deserted beach. I headed toward a rock that was carved over millions of earth years into the shape of a horse saddle. It fits me perfectly and I can sit for a while watching pelicans and cormorants perform their early morning acrobatics over a rock about a hundred yards off shore. I just sit. No expectations. The pacific ocean washes up against the rock. I simply follow the waves as they crash and then relax on the sand.

Today, a couple walked ahead of me toward the same rock. They could see the direction I was walking and all but sprinted to get the best spot before I did. They were elated with themselves for getting the best view. I found another outlook and this time watched as the couple spent twenty minutes taking selfies… selfie with the ocean behind, selfie with the pelicans behind, selfie taking a picture of a selfie  picture. They laughed and had a thoroughly fun time. Finally, having run out of unoriginal selfie pictures to send to their social media accounts showing friends and followers how they just love to be at the beach in the early morning, they packed up their phones and walked back toward town. They never once looked out to sea, heard the birds, tasted the salt air, felt the sand, or smelled the seaweed around. As they walked away, a lone dolphin slid through the shallows. They never looked back so missed that too.

It was hard not to judge them and remain at peace. I wanted to shake them awake. But soon I was relatively chilled even with these two self absorbed creatures disturbing my memory of the otherwise perfect peace of crashing waves. I remained where I was for the next half an hour and immersed in nature.

Afterward, on the stroll home, I was thinking how little the couple understood how to work with nature. They had the perfect opportunity just to be, just to immerse, to let go, to chill, all of which creates the opportunity to deepen connection. Instead they saw nature as a backdrop, a source of pretty scenes for their electronic dominated lives. To them nature is a thing. They were doing nature.

I was not being critical, just observant of the lost opportunity. Being in nature is not taking selfies. It is not chatting away with a friend about other things while watching a view. It is not jogging along a forest track while missing all the wildlife and flora you rush by. It is not doing yoga under a tree. It is not gardening. It is not having a picnic. All of these things are wonderful things to do, but there is the rub. They are all about doing something. Working with nature requires being with it… being. That is all.

To ‘be’ means to let go. Completely. That means saying to yourself silently; “Fuck it all.” Then you put your phone on airplane mode, switch off the notifications, zip it away in a pocket. You don’t check the time. You don’t speak out loud. You take a few deep breaths to get centered. Then you imagine yourself falling into nature… through the floor, through the grass, through the sand. Then you feel nature’s warm embrace in the breeze, in the warmth of the sun, in the cool of the ice. Working with nature means being with it. That is all.

If you are walking then you stop for a while and just ‘be.’ Maybe sit under a tree. If you are jogging, you pause, get your breath, lie in the grass, stretch out, watch the clouds. Just be for a while. If you are gardening, you down tools, find a flower, and observe it silently as all its insect visitors come and go.

As you ‘be,’ your emotion should shift from being all about you and your problems to simply being grateful for nature around you. Ask permission to stop and observe for a while. Don’t ask for help. Don’t hope for a moment of insight. Don’t have expectations of a deer walking up and licking you.

Just be… and be grateful.

But it’s snowing. But I live in the city. But I have to commute. But and more buts and more butts.

Your life is at stake. Nature teaches, nature guides, nature is your doorway to paradise on earth. Immerse in nature. Right now step outside. Look at the sky. Don’t judge it. Weather is, well… weather. Find a blade of grass or leaf of a tree to focus on. Feel the wind against your face. Geel the ground beneath your feet. fell, feel, feel.

No excuse. There are none.

With more time, go find a starlit summit where there is no light pollution. Walk barefoot on the grass. Feel the ocean between your toes. Watch a bird fly. Listen to a wave. Smell a flower. Make a snow sculpture. Build a sand castle. Hug a tree trunk. Caress a rock.  Taste a herb.

Additional Resources:

1. A short video of where I used to hang out as a teenager.

2. A podcast from the TSS blog on the subject of immersing in nature alone.

It often seems that when humans try to control nature, which in this video was the extinction of wolves by farmers, things unravel. When nature is left alone it takes care of us all.

Recently, two sides of a nearby canyon burned to the soil following a lightning strike. The local authority only had enough money to fertilize one slope, and left the other to nature. Three months later the untreated side looked like it did before the fire. The treated side is still barren and now protected with barriers to prevent mudslides when the rains arrive. Nature organizes itself. Nature is a force. Nature is fermions and bosons. Nature is a deep source of energy we can tap into and learn from.

With our improved senses we can perhaps better tap into that energy by simply being present.

“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery — air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, ‘This is what it is to be happy.’ ” -Sylvia Plath

“It had nothing to do with gear or footwear or the backpacking fads or philosophies of any particular era or even with getting from point A to point B. It had to do with how it felt to be in the wild. With what it was like to walk for miles with no reason other than to witness the accumulation of trees and meadows, mountains and deserts, streams and rocks, rivers and grasses, sunrises and sunsets. The experience was powerful and fundamental. It seemed to me that it had always felt like this to be a human in the wild, and as long as the wild existed it would always feel this way.” -Cheryl Strayed

“I had an inheritance from my father. It was the moon and the sun. And though I roam all over the world, the spending of it’s never done.” -Ernest Hemingway

“The trails are a reminder of our insignificance. We come and go, but nature is forever. It puts us in our place, underscoring that we are not lords of the universe but components of it…So when the world seems to be falling apart, when we humans seem to be creating messes everywhere we turn, maybe it’s time to rejuvenate in the cathedral of the wilderness — and there, away from humanity, rediscover our own humanity.” -Nicholas Kristof

“Great things are done when men and mountains meet.” -William Blake

“The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As longs as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.” -Anne Frank

Spirit guides

Animal Spirit – Animals are ever-present in our lives, whether they’re our beloved household dog or the roaming coyote that we glimpse every now and then. Yet, we often lack an understanding of their symbolic nature and the key characteristics that define them. Traditional shamans believe that spirit animals or totems are revealed to guide and protect their charges throughout a journey. They offer influential insights into our subconscious mind and carry meaningful messages if you are willing to listen. Your spirit animal is meant to serve as a guide and bring attention to parts of your life that need acknowledgement and exploration. To discover your animal spirit guide simply search online where there are lots of free tools.

Plant Spirit – In earlier epochs of human history, people lived in harmony with the natural world, and regarded plants as sentient, aware, intelligent, alive, and healers in their own right. Tribal shamans earned powerful status as spiritual leaders and liaisons between plants and the spirit world. Again, there are a lot of resources online.

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