Nature

For aeons humans have pondered about their relationship with nature.


At different times and through different traditions the natural elements, animals, plants and minerals that make up our whole world have been: worshipped, honoured, respected, feared and /or protected.

While the indigenous populations of our planet continue this integration or whole-view of our natural world, and our place within it, it appears that other cultural traditions have separated human activity from the whole picture.

Anthropocentric cultures place humans at the centre of all meaning leading to

 a sense of superiority, separation and attempts to 

master the environment.

Of course this a sweeping overview of human development but is only mentioned as an introduction to the condition we find ourselves in at the beginning of the 21st Century. And that is, in a nutshell, a  predominant westernised culture that is beginning to feel and exhibit the costs of this constructed disconnection and separation from the 'whole'.


Many are beginning to recognise that the root of many of  the social and cultural physical, mental and emotional maladies of our modern world arise from this lack of connection.

True, real, deep connection; with each other and 

with the whole natural environment 

of which we are a part of, 

not apart from.

In the last decades of the last century science, art and spiritual explorations of this disconnection began to have a voice.  Platforms for discussion and sharing that could reach the mainstream masses introduced back into our consciousness the relevance and necessity of connection. The Gaia Wisdom, Deep Ecology, Return to the Wild opened doors with tools and means to begin to re-connect. In recent years the emergence and increasing profile of nature writing can be understood in this context.

Nature writing encourages a spiritual deepening and communing with nature, 
a creative and artistic interaction and interpretation of nature, 
a scientific appreciation and sharing, 
an honouring and celebration 
of cultural relevance.

Of course Nature writing is not new and its history or roots can be traced to the natural history works of the 18th and 19th centuries and the scientific, poetic and great literary works that followed.


But my interest and wonder  is in its current rennaisance.

Where it is emerging as a solid and meaningful genre that 

spans the realms of arts and science 

building a bridge between the 

subjective and objective

 experience of 

this world. 

In a sense reducing the divide; the separation. Encouraging each side to learn about each other with respect and appreciation. My interest is personal, curious, willing.


In my experience nature writing allows me to be enchanted, nudges me to learn the science, increases my own deepening of the enviro-cultural experience and holds my hand as I walk, as a child of this world, into the possibility of  connection and sense of belonging. And so I begin to feel the inspiring fullness of wonder.


This is my platform for sharing. :-) Dawny