Sitting In Nature, Deep: A Verbal Riff

At Creation Girl and my work-in-progress grape arbor on the banks of the West Chickamauga Creek at Spirit Tree Farms, I had some thoughts about sitting in nature. I’d originally sat down to rest. My intention was to connect with Nature. Immediately, I pulled out my phone to check my email, watch reels, and look at social media.

Fail. So I put my phone down, closed my eyes, and settled into sitting in Nature, deep.

Then, these thoughts struck me. Rather than wait until I was at my computer, I picked up my phone and did a voice recognition verbal riff. [It’s a new prose-writing method for me, but one I could get used to! It’s quick and effective, and I hope captures the message well.]

Sitting in nature requires putting your phone away, or maybe not even bringing it. It means laying your tools down, including pulling your snippers out of your pocket and throwing them onto the ground, to better be prepared for the messages Nature is going to send you.

Sitting in Nature Means Not Seeing So You Can Experience

Sitting in Nature means looking around. Instead of seeing privet that needs to be pulled, or wild grapevines that need to be trellised, or invasive grasses that need to be burned, or ironweed seeds that need to be gathered, spend time just sitting. Listening. Feeling. Sensing. Learning.

Take this deliberate time. Make this purposeful effort of rest and nature observation and connection. It might mean hearing and feeling the negative ions of the distant creek running over the rocks placed there as a fishing weir by pre-contact native residents of this land. Sitting in Nature is worth it, as these Ancient Ones knew. Sure, they worked, but they also stopped, looked, listened, felt, learned, and taught.

Like us, the inhabitants of this land watched the late-season butterflies flit among the few goldenrod and burn weed and ironweed blooms still available. They no doubt marveled at the bright blood-red stalks of pokeweed, nearly spent, holding on to the last vestiges of purple berries which would provide fruit throughout the winter, swaying with the late autumn breeze.

These people of the land saw that same breeze give dead and dying ironweed stalks a shake, spreading wildflower seeds like salt from a shaker. They felt the late Autumn breeze and wondered at its warmth and smiled at its gentle caress. They looked at the skyline of multi-hued deciduous trees and probably put that sight in their memory banks for later on, when they would make blankets and paint paintings which reflected those same Earth tone colors.

Developing Symbiotic Relationships With Nature And Families

Undoubtedly, these nature observation experts listened to the squirrels chattering, gathering and husking hickory nuts and black walnuts, preparing for the winter. In the Indigenous tribal culture, the older wise ones probably showed the younger ones which plants to gather. Then, the younger ones, full of life and energy and supple bodies able to bend and lift, used the old ones wisdom and knowledge to quickly harvest what the tribe needed. The old ones sharing that knowledge freely, and accepted the youths’ gift of energy and work, a symbiotic relationship in a group of humans mirroring the symbiotic relationships found throughout nature.

Throughout the entire Nature observation and gathering process, either the elderly or the young — or perhaps both — felt the presence of the Creator, the Great Spirit. Together, they shared the joy found in sitting with and being enveloped by Nature. Maybe the sun caressed their shoulders as they munched on a foraged turkey tail or a goldenrod blossom. Or when they discovered and shared and relished a late-fruiting passion flower, they felt joy, and they gave thanks. And when the Ancient Ones returned to work after sitting in Nature, resting, and feeling, that joy they’d found stayed with them. Their efforts was no longer work and drudgery, but instead a joint celebration with each other, with the plants and animals all around them. They were like dancers separate but in harmony, swaying and moving through creation itself.

Nature Lifts Us When We Put Down Tools And Technology

We can learn much from the Ancient Ones. We should mirror that dance with Nature. Let’s make an effort to put down our tools and technology. Let’s take the time to find nature joy today, ourselves. Because, if we let it, if we spend time sitting in Nature, the energy we get and gather to us stays with us, lifts us, buoys us, and carries us through life.

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This verbal riff was original published in my CyranoWriter.com creative writing blog. A follow-up, more poetic piece can be found on the same blog.