Tips To Enjoy Nature More (And Why We Don’t!)

Today was an amazingly perfect late Spring day in Northwest Georgia at Spirit Tree Farms. Nature was at its finest! The sky was bright blue. Billowy white clouds provided the occasion shade, but with the recent cold front that moved through, and the light breeze blowing, it was neither too hot nor too humid. In fact, just right!

Days like these seem to make Nature’s colors and voices pop. The greens are much greener, the reds and yellows and violets and blues and pinks from the flowers are much richer, and the voices in Nature, birds, bugs, rippling water, wind through the leaves, all seem that much more pronounced.

It’s days like today that you can really feel the peace and healing that Nature brings to our bodies, minds, and souls.

As I was driving through the countryside, and later when I sat on my front porch, I wondered why more people don’t take advantage of the peace and the healing that Nature provides. I wondered if it was because most people don’t live like we live at Spirit Tree Farms, surrounded by Nature and God’s creations.

That’s not why.

I thought of all the times, when I was living in the city and the suburbs, that I felt disconnected from Nature. Why (and how) did I let myself get like that? How did I allow that disconnect to happen? Then, suddenly, like the flash of the hummingbird that flitted by, it struck me: We try too hard.

Making Big Plans To Get Back To Nature

As I mused about the times I was disconnected from Nature, I wondered how I got back into it. How could I feel the sacred, connecting, healing power that being in Creation brings to us? My solution, then, was to make some sort of giant plan, to set goals on going to a national park, or to the beach, or even a day trip into the woods or mountains. Often, I would try to get up to my Grandma’s place on the lake in central Wisconsin, or to my Dad’s place just up the road from Grandma’s cabin.

In those places, by “getting away from it all”, I knew I would reconnect. In fact, my parents used to bet how long (or short) it would take me to go “jump in the lake” once I arrived. They knew that slipping into that cool, murky yet comforting and cleansing lake water, connected me and grounded me.

Then I thought of my Grandma, always so grounded in life, in Nature, in the beauty of God’s creations. She hardly ever took trips to “reconnect”. She just was, always,  in it, connected.

Grandma’s Mother Earth Connection Was Simple

How did that happen? Why could my Grandma live like that? What was I missing? I realized: Connecting with Nature doesn’t require that we “go out there.” Even in big cities, Nature is around us and can be accessed quickly and immediately. Whether looking at the first flower of Spring, watching Canada geese migrate, looking at a bright red cardinal at her bird feeder in the dead of winter, or admiring a sunset, Grandma just enjoyed where she was, how she was, in Nature.

Let me give another example. I have a couple of friends in Seattle who are constantly stressed about and consumed by work. In order to reconnect and find the peace in their lives, they routinely schedule trips to the Olympic Peninsula, to Mount Rainier, up into the Cascades, or to the beach. However, they have it in their mind that, once they take those trips (and only then) they will get connected and feel “normal”.

Most Americans, I think, feel that same way: Only when they go “on a trip” or “get away” can they get reconnected. And that’s incorrect.

A Little Nature Goes A Long Way

I realized that fallacy last time I was visiting my friends. They were both stressed, especially the wife. We stepped out on their balcony in the city for a moment. She had beautiful flowers and herbs on the railing. Just beyond the railing was a large, beautifully – leafed deciduous tree. The leaves were glowing, shimmering in the later afternoon light and pleasant breeze from off the Puget Sound.

At that moment, she looked deep into the tree’s leaves, saw the way the light and shadows were dancing in the branches, and connected. I could hear her voice change. She stopped acting so adjugated. I’m certain her breathing slowed, as did her heart rate.  She felt much more at peace.

Nature’s Healing Happens in Small Doses

Here’s the truth I’ve learned: Nature doesn’t need you to check into some massive park or resort to help heal you. At Spirit Tree Farms, we’ve learned to teach Nature Observation, Nature Connection, Nature Relating principles and practices that can be done anywhere. We joke that even if you have a bucket with a plant in it on a balcony in Harlem, Nature can find you and heal you. (In fact, I wrote a haiku about how Nature finds a way. On a business trip to Milwaukee, surrounded by office and factory buildings, I was amazed to find Nature on an old factory’s brick chimney. Look for the red arrow in the photo, where a tree is growing out of the bricks.)

When I was growing up, a religious leader encouraged people to connect to the soil by working in the land. He encouraged us to have a garden. BUT, if you couldn’t have a garden, just to have a planter with one plant in it. I’m just now learning that he was more wise than we gave him credit for. He knew of Nature’s power to heal us, even if we’re just weeding a bucket in Harlem.

We as humans need to stop having so many requirements on connecting with Nature. We need to stop making it so difficult. We need to simplify the ways we connect with Nature, and accept that Nature is TRYING to heal us. She WANTS to connect with us.

Tips to Easily Connect With God’s Creations

Here are some thoughts I’ve had about how to connect with Nature more easily:

1. Although big trips and events are useful, don’t make bucket list trips the only time you connect with Nature
2. Discover and access smaller ways to connect with Nature
3. Open yourself up to Nature everywhere around you
4. Practice “localized Nature observation and connection”. Look at one leaf on one tree. Listen to one bird’s song, Hear, see, smell, or feel something in Nature that, at first blush, seems very simple
5. Intentionally connect with Nature on a regular basis. (NOTE: This might require that you schedule a few minutes every day to do this, until it becomes a habit.)
6. Take time to intentionally see/feel/hear/taste/touch Nature, even when you are doing ordinary tasks (such as on your commute to work, or looking out your office window)

Connecting With Nature Doesn’t Need to be Difficult

If you’ve learned one truth from reading this piece, I hope it’s this: Feeling Nature’s Healing Can Be and Is Really Easy. Does it take time? Not any more time than it takes to think “I need to plan a getaway so I can reconnect with Nature.” Simplify your Nature Observation and Connection. You will be surprised at how easy it becomes.

Why?

Because Nature is God’s Creation. And God is crazy about us, His children. He WANTS to help us, to heal us. And because Nature, Mother Earth, is His creation, she is equally crazy about us. Imagine: Mother Earth is equally desirous to help us! She is waiting for us. She is wanting us to reach out. She is willing to heal us if we’d just take a moment to simply reach out and connect with her. And she doesn’t care how we do it! We just should connect for as long as we can, in any way that we can.

Connect more with Nature and #FindNatureJoy. Learn more about the blessings the Creator gives us in and through Nature. Follow Spirit Tree Farms on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and other social media outlets.

Nature creativity, observation, and inspiration activities, classes, and experiences are available virtually or on-site. Check out Spirit Tree Farms in Northwest Georgia. You might also enjoy Marnie’s blog about Nature at http://www.CreationGirl.com, and some of Dave’s Nature observation writing at http://www.CyranoWriter.com/creativity