Nature as Breath

It has come to interest me to see people talk about or list ‘nature’ as one of their interests.

Lately I have been spending time, often by myself, in the velveteen mountains of the currently fantastically green Patagonia, and it occurred to me how ‘nature’, while it used to be an experience far away and few between, is the very context of my life now. Most of the time I’m not working or sleeping, I’m outside, somewhere.

For most of us, ‘Nature’, is an environment we only partially experience as a transition between our inside environments, and, if we have ‘Nature’ as an ‘interest’, maybe we’re lucky enough to get away for a few vacations where we can really rejoice in its splendor fully.

Things have changed, however, and I am now finding it amazing that I functioned so well with such an incredible disconnect from the beauty and splendor of the earth. ‘Spending time in nature,’ for most of my life, wouldn’t even have been listed as an interest. I liked it, but it was not priority. It was a nice little side addition to the smoargasborad of life experiences that I considered important at the time.

Now that my life feels like part of Nature, in the sense that it IS the context, rather than Nature feeling part of my life, I find it rather odd that people add ‘Spending time in Nature’ to their list of interests, sandwiched between ‘biking,’ ‘action movies,’ and ‘gelato’. Not that there’s anything wrong with those – I bike every day, love action movies and will eat (raw vegan) gelato any time of the day or night you would like to bring it to me 

I’m not saying that listing ‘Nature’ is a interest is not something one should do  By any means. In fact, if it is an interest, then by all means shout it out loud! Imagine if everyone in the world would list ‘Nature’ as one of their interests?

I am simply observing and sharing that through my current perspective, ‘Nature’ as in interest, would sort of be like listing ‘Breathing’ as an interest. Obviously not quite that dramatic, since we apparently seem to be able to exist some sort of rather mediocre existence without any connection to nature. Call me an idealist, but I envision a world where ‘Nature’ is never listed as an interest, because it is very simply, considered central, fundamental and vital to our existence. We take care of it, it takes care of us.

And the ironic thing is, if nature doesn’t take on that role for all of us very soon, breathing won’t be something we could list as interest anyways.

With love,
Court