How to Reconnect With Nature
There’s a growing sadness among nature lovers: a sense that we’re disconnected from the natural world, especially those of us living in cities or spending too much time on screens. We feel pained that we’re not ‘in nature’ enough. But what if the problem isn’t about actual separation—it’s about attention.
You cannot be away from nature.
If you reframe this sadness of disconnection from nature as a longing for connection with the Earth herself, you simply cannot be apart.
You can think that you are. You can deny your essential connection, and refuse the relationship, but you cannot live on the Earth and be separate from her.
She is the essential support for our lives. Everything that makes up our lives originates from hers.
The Earth is the source of our food, air, water, clothes, shoes, furniture, cars, and even the cells of our bodies. Someone may take the Earth’s raw materials and process them to a point that they no longer seem like they come from her, but they still do.
From this perspective, any lack of nature we may be feeling is based on our own lack of attention.
And we can begin to resolve it by acknowledging the ever-presence of nature in our lives.
We may no longer gather our water from streams or pick our vegetables from the ground, but we can still remember that this is where they’ve come from. We can still be grateful for their presence in our lives.
And we can do this without leaving our homes.
When you wake up every morning, you can take a breath and say,
Thank you, Mother Earth, for this air to breathe.
When you go to the bathroom sink and feel the water run through your fingers, you can say,
Thank you, Mother Earth, for this water to drink and wash with.
When you sit down to eat, you can say,
Thank you, Mother Earth, for this food to eat.
You can even put on a pair of jeans and say,
Thank you, Mother Earth, for these pants to wear.
You can say thank you all day long.
The next time you’re stuck inside and feeling the pain of wishing you could be out hiking instead, remember that the Earth is always with you. You can connect with her anytime you want.