It is no secret that many people are disconnected from nature in the modern/colonial world. Some of us more than others. Even if nature is around us, we may not know how to communicate or connect with it. We might be more apt to pick up our food from a grocery store than to grow it ourselves, or to drive in a gas-powered car than to walk barefoot on the dirt. We might not be able to think of the last time we have put our hands in soil or the last time we went to the forest or a river. This is not a judgement, but an acknowledgement of what is commonplace in modern/colonial life. It is important to name what is routine, so that we can also name what is missing.
Although nature’s health is directly related to our health as human beings, the modern/colonial world does not treat nature as valuable. Nature is commonly polluted with harmful chemicals and other substances that inevitably return to our bodies. Life does not have to be this way. It is this way because of the lust for money and power by some people at the expense of others. Such a mindset is not born into us. Who taught them to destroy the world at the expense of their species’ health and wellbeing? What systems upheld or failed to critique such destructive teachings? This is why we need new ways of learning.
If we feel disconnected from the Earth, we can begin to feel more connected simply by making a small gesture of acknowledgement to the nature that surrounds us, in whatever form that may be. Whether it be by saying “thank you” to the water after we take a shower or by talking to some trees or the ocean about a life struggle or a deeply important question, it is the action that matters. People may say that such actions are meaningless because they assume that no response will be received: water cannot speak our language, trees don’t talk to us like they do in an animated movie, the ocean isn’t sentient - they say. So why would you talk to these things when you won’t receive a rational type of response?
Talking to nature creates a feeling of relation between yourself and the water, or the trees, or the ocean that is deeper than before. It is the act of doing that is enough, not the promise of receiving or obtaining something out of the action that makes it worth doing. This act of talking to nature without the promise of receiving something in return opens possibilities that we as human beings cannot possibly understand. Nature’s networks are huge and vast, unseen yet felt. Talking to nature, without expectation, creates such openings. So the next time you take a shower, or walk by a tree, or touch the dirt, it is an opportunity to make a deeper relation with the place we all call home.
