The current buzz around the sky-scrapers and overflowing landfills is to go-green. In fact, if you are still using the plastic bags at the grocery store, you’ll soon stand out if you haven’t made the switch to cloth bags. But are you switching to cloth bags because you really want to or because stores have stopped carrying the plastic ones?
“Saving” the environment is fast becoming a trend, albeit a trend that is worth following. Still, others need more convincing and are hesitant to switch from styrofoam coffee cups to a reusable one. But why? Why do we still forget the cloth bags in our car and why do we still let the water run when we brush our teeth?
It is because we don’t have a relationship with Nature that we forget simple things to help her. When we are in a relationship with someone, we have invested something in it, our time, our energy, our love, and our awareness of that person. We think about them. This is what we need to do with Nature, so that helping her becomes second Nature (no pun intended.) :)
Why is this important?
We are linked to the environment: the environment effects us and we in turn effect the environment. We need only to reflect, to ponder, to contemplate with the eyes of the heart to seriously recognize these links we have to Nature.
Dependent, Independent or Interdependent
We need several things from Nature to provide for us a healthy state of mind, spirit, heart and body and a lot of us have come to depend on Nature for it; however, like blinking, we don’t give it a second thought, expecting it to happen for us. In this part of the world, we expect clean fresh water to gush out through our taps and baths, we expect the air to be fresh and rejuvenating to breathe in, and we expect the land to grow healthy food that ends up in our grocery stores.
In many parts of the world, these are not expectations but a moment of celebration and many times a miracle that any of these things happen at all (and on a daily basis.) Moreover, not only do we need to nourish our bodies, but more and more of us live in closed-in spaces with hardly any green around us. Thus, we are dependent on Nature to also give us a chance for a retreat into the mountains, or to forests, to rivers and to new terrain for silence and stillness.
We can not be independent from Nature as we need it to remain alive! The honor and trust we have been given as someone who resides on this Earth, more and more of us are taking part in sustainable practices of our Earth most diligently, in a interdependent relationship. An interdependent relationship is one that both parties give and take to one another. Nature can not give all the time, nor can humans keep taking. A balanced relationship is an interdependent one.
The Reason for the Disconnect
The environmental crisis largely arises from an actual physical disconnect of human beings from Nature and its surroundings. Face to face human contact and touch is becoming less, as the global accessibility to information all over the world increases through fast-paced technology. Direct contact with the environment has decreased significantly.
One of the main reasons of disconnect is a shift from simple to complex lifestyles and the second main reason is a fear of being outside. These both lead to the breakdown of the inherent curiosity and imagination – the spirit in us. Over the last few years, fewer and fewer children are seen outside and our playgrounds have become emptier. Where are they? Unfortunately, television and video games and now even the internet, children and adults (me!) are trapped for hours mesmerized and injected with false desires of a lifestyle they can not keep up with .
Children and adults are quickly “bored” in the great outdoors nowadays because the natural curiosity has been preoccupied by fast immediate images and messages, which creates an unhealthy fear: “I don’t know what to do out here!” There is a strange comfort behind user names and passwords, a sense of confidence and courage in saying things in email you would never say otherwise. The fear of being outside is ironically coupled with a confidence-boost in technology in young people.
Children playing outside in parks or in front yards, riding on bikes down alleyways and hockey nets set-up on the side streets will soon be a nostalgic memory of the past if the reconnect doesn’t happen soon.
Earth and Water
We are made of two key elements from Nature: Earth and water (we are 75% water and 25% flesh). As we feel a natural kinship with our mothers who have given us birth, we tend to forget to feel the same for the “Mother” Earth. Thus, if humans become disconnected from the earth, we become disconnected from our very nature.
Living in urban dwellings, in isolated compartmentalized spaces, separates us not only from Nature but also from meaningful interaction with other people.
A brief glance into any history book tells us that people used to live off of the Earth in interdependent relationships; many people were hunters and gatherers, shepherds and farmers utilizing it for the necessity of survival. Classrooms were outside, as students gathered around teachers in courtyards. Taking care of animals was a part of a child’s upbringing. All of these activities hardly occur in the city and leave people feeling disconnected with their environment.
A shift back towards a simpler lifestyle really is a step forward towards spiritual nourishment and a natural tendency to upkeep the environment.
Our Lifestyle Choices
We all play an important role in building a sustainable future. What and how much we buy, significantly impacts Nature, as well as where we live, how we move around and what we eat. By making better choices we will have to rethink our relationship with Nature in our daily decisions that will lead to preserving her.
For example, we are always in the midst of choice about many different things in a day. But, before we can switch from eating take-out to eating from your garden or hang drying your clothes rather than using the dryer, it’s important to understand why you are making different choices. It will be in those very moments of choice that a caretaker of the Earth can make beneficial changes to their lives with awareness of our actions.
Cultivating a relationship with nature is the necessary first step to establish a more interdependent relationship between you and your environment.
Importance of Reconnection
Harmonizing with the rest of Creation, reflecting on the natural order of the cosmos, and reconnecting to the earth and water in you, will bring back that peace in your heart that you were born with.
Education – What can you do?
Education is important to go ahead with a green life. You want to commit to a green earth but you might not know how to truly do it and make it meaningful.
You’re “Going Green” because everyone else is doing it but that’s not what you should do. Organic fruits and shorter showers might be a stepping stone to greener living but to truly balance yourself with the rest of creation is the bigger goal. When you truly balance with the Earth, going green will be as natural as breathing and this recognition enables you to do things without having to make a choice because it is as natural as breathing.
The wise scholars say to do things for 40 days to make it a habit. Try small steps everyday until it becomes second nature for you. :) Thinking about others, reading about how others live and looking at the environment as a friend to take care of who gives you all that you need, is a step towards building your relationship with Nature.
Last Thoughts
Nature can not be understood as a separate subject you study in elementary school or university. It is not separate from us physically, as we know we are made from Earth and water. It has to be understood as a whole – as a living thing. Rebuilding our communities of Nature is essential and can be done with constant direct experiences with Nature. It is important to keep experiencing the beauty of Nature, especially for young children, rather than inform them about the problems concerning the human-nature relationship. Being aware of problems too soon can cut children off from their roots. There is an inherent urge to bond with the natural world – focus on this first and the environmental activists will have strong supporters without any appeal of their own.
Here are some ways to cultivate the green in you:
- Make an intention to build a relationship with Nature and become more environmentally-conscious.
- Go outdoors everyday rain or shine.
- Hike in the mountains or forests at least once a week.
- Take photographs of the natural elements and reflect on them.
- Sit and stare at the ocean.
- Breathe clean air literally. Take in big breaths and let them out. Smell the air.
- Find out the names of things. Pick up a small book of tree, bird or local animals in your neighbourhood and know the name of the plant you walk by. Giving something a name, makes it important to you.
- Grow a garden – get your hands dirty!
- Keep a window open and feel the breeze enter your lungs.
- Be in touch when you are walking about. Touch leaves, rocks, flowers (don’t pick them), run your hands through grass, the bark, the water, etc.
- Go berry picking in a farm!
- Run around in an open field barefoot.
- Dress warmly and feel the element of wind on your face one day. Fly a kite.
- Go bird-watching, watch animals in nature and note observations.
- Travel to places of people who have less than you and learn how they get by.
- Make perspective drawings of a certain tree by the season. This means you have to come back to the same spot and find the tree and reflect on its changes every season.
- Look for designs or patterns in nature: circles, squares, triangles, lines.
- Hug a tree for a long time.
- Busy studying? Read your textbook under the shade of a tree.
- Busy working? Have a plant on your desk that you water everyday.
- Busy with family? Have children take part in outside chores, use green in your food.
- Busy cooking? Know the names of herbs and spices you use everyday and its history.
An Invitation
What are some ways that you have built your relationship with Nature? What do you do to keep in touch with Nature? Share your comments below and let’s find ways to help each other reconnect.
I hope you find balance with your environment today.
image credit: tracitodd
