Nature Connection

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to see Jon Young speak in Guelph, an event put on by Transition Guelph and the Guelph Forest School. Jon Young is a co-author of The Coyote Guide to Connecting with Nature and the founder of the Wilderness Awareness School. The talk was inspiring and has pushed me further down a path I have been travelling down for a few years. For many years I have been exploring my passion for nature, mainly through organic gardening and permaculture. It was been exciting, meaningful, and engaging.

But one thing has been missing for me and Jon nailed it in his talk when he discussed four necessary modalities for being a nature connected person (who can then go on to mentor others). I have the first two modalities down pat: I have ample knowledge and skills and I enjoy being in nature. It was the third point where I realized I have a problem: timeless wandering in nature. That is, regularly being in nature without a strict timeframe, a particular destination or purpose other than to wander and observe. I am a busy person. I have four kids, two jobs, and regularly do permaculture and community work on the side, both paid and unpaid. I am always rushing from one place to another, or at least I feel like I am constantly in a hurry. I am a passionate advocate of nature connection yet I don't give myself time to wander in the woods, climb a tree, observe an ant colony, or just lie amongst wildflowers and watch clouds drift by. I rarely even give myself time for a brisk walk. In a rush to get my tasks done including the biggest task of all - saving the world - I have forgotten to stop and learn from the most important teacher I have: nature.

As I listened to the rest of Jon's talk I realized that this is the most important and urgent step for me to take right now in my growth as a teacher, a permaculturalist, and an activist. I need to have regular timeless wanderings in nature. Not only that but I need to intimately know the natural spaces where I live. I can navigate around most parts of my city with ease and confidence, especially the neighbourhoods in which I have lived. I need to be able to navigate the natural spaces in my city (and beyond) with the same ease and confidence. So, I am going back to school in a sense. My classroom is the woods and the river; my teachers are trees and mushrooms, and insects, and other critters and plants; my textbooks are my hands, my ears, my eyes, my taste buds, and my heart. I have attended this school before, as a child. I spent hours every week wandering around the pasture while the cows lazily munched on the grass; playing in the river, annoying crayfish; even jumping around the junk pile behind the barn on the edge of the field. But something happened, I dropped out. Or maybe I decided it was just a place for children not for serious and busy adults. Now I realize I am in this school for life. There will never be an end to the things I can and need to learn from nature.

Maybe I'll see you there?