The ECO BEING section of our website features articles, discussions and events which focus on the realization that we are whole and connected to everything. From this point of view, we have the potential to restore balance within ourselves, with humanity, with animals, with resources, with the environment, with the planet, with life in every form.

INTIMACY WITH NATURE: Living a Sensual Life

submitted by Lisa Morris

We’ve all seen television ads of happy people recklessly driving through pristine forests and streams, hermetically sealed in an automobile while the kids sit in the back seat watching a movie, unaware of the world beyond the windows. This strikes me as such an apt metaphor for the way we often move through everyday life, sealed within our homes, our habits and our heads, lost in our thoughts and oblivious to the beauty around us.

Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods writes that while we are aware of the threats to our planet, we are losing our “intimacy with nature.” Most readily agree that we can no longer pretend that the world is simply a neutral commodity awaiting the mark of our intervention and added value. And yet, increasingly we are out of the practice of noticing and appreciating the places we move through each day. This “nature deficit disorder” is, I believe, a root of the larger issues we now face. We cannot truly value the natural world if we are not fully aware of the natural world.

On the theory that we are less likely to obliterate that which we know and respect, it makes sense to move beyond the concepts of green living and to get intimate. Every part of our planet, from the largest mountain to the smallest sub-atomic particle is alive, aware, and intelligent. Beyond an intellectual knowledge of this Life that we all share, we can benefit from slowing down and feeling the experience of it directly. Our animal nature with its physical senses is perfectly equipped for this learning and knowing.

Our senses are the doorways to the natural world and also doorways to the inner world. The senses often bypass the thinking process and provide real knowingness. In fact thinking and talking make it difficult to be aware of what we are experiencing through our senses. As a culture, we have become hypnotized with thinking. It’s not that thinking is a bad thing to do - thinking can be very useful indeed. It’s just that we have filled up so much of our awareness with thinking and talking that we ignore the huge volumes of wisdom from our fuller, non-verbal experience.

Be the human animal that you are and become sensually intimate with the world around you.

Just get outside. Make a goal of being outside, either walking or resting, for an extra fifteen minutes each day. Pay attention to the experience of it. Feel the delicious pull of the Earth’s gravity on your body. For this short period, put away your cellphone and ipod and avoid conversation with others. Most importantly, avoid conversation with yourself.

Regard the non-human members of your neighborhood. Get into the habit of noticing the presence of trees and plants, insects, rocks and soil, air and water. You don’t need to know anything about nature at all. Simply witness its existence and aliveness. You could even repeat the word “alive” with every encounter of your senses. Meadow: alive, air: alive! Color: alive, sweet smell: alive! Soil: alive, another human: alive!

Open your windows. Smell. Listen without identifying what you hear. What is the closest sound you can hear? What is the farthest? Let what you hear be the soundtrack of your day.

Go on vacation -in your everyday life. With the attitude of a traveler, observe your everyday world. Take a different route to work. Look in directions you’ve never noticed-(hint: try looking down below your feet and up above eye level.) Allow yourself to see without knowing what it is that you see. Look at the spaces between things. Appreciate. There will be plenty to appreciate.

Learn the names of the plants and animals in your yard and neighborhood. Consider that learning the name of something is like meeting a friend. The introduction can be the beginning of evermore learning and noticing and appreciating. Check out Jim Conrad’s website www.backyardnature.net for identification resources and inspiration. Work toward his Bug-Eaten Leaf award.

Enjoy a meal, with gratitude. Allow yourself to truly enjoy the food on your plate. If you believe a particular food will not nourish your body and soul, don’t eat it. Otherwise, eat with mindfulness and gusto! Any healthy thing you are eating is alive, so express your thanks.

My family has a very straightforward blessing at meals: we thank the beings that gave their lives to nourish our bodies. All of them. While this makes for a much rowdier (and earthier) meal starter than I remember at my grandparents’ table, it is awareness-provoking and fun.

In our first Living Green column, we introduced ways to begin a composting station at home. Have you tried it? How is it going? Do you have any questions about how to proceed? If you already have a composting station, do you have tips to share with others who are just getting started? One Community Programs would like to introduce our Composting Guide, Lisa Morris and our new ECO BEING resource blog. Lisa can assist you via email with any questions you have about composting: the process, the tools, the components of a rich mix, and so on. Please drop her a line: lisa@onecommunityprograms.com . Your blog and/or question(s) may be posted on this website so that others who may have the same question can also benefit from you generosity. Let us know how it’s going by posting to our blog! Share your insights, your successes, and your challenges. Remember that your comments and questions will help others along the way.