To Save Nature You Need To Know How To Savour It First
Telling people to care for Nature is one of the cliches of environmentalism, and I do that every day. I go on blabbering with my friends, family members and colleagues about how we should work towards reducing global warming, how we should try not to waste excess of water, or electricity, or paper, and various non-renewable resources. But the harsh reality is that nobody cares (okay, thankfully some people do, but not many). Just as human beings don’t care for many things, especially the things that don’t matter much to their daily life, I realized that they also don’t care deeply for Nature.
This argument seems like a moral question for mankind, but from one viewpoint it is not a moral conundrum at all but a psychological fact: you simply don’t care for something that you don’t know much about. Simple as that!
It might sound silly to state that people don’t know much about Nature. They do; but here is the catch: what most people know is information about Nature, but not Nature itself.
To know Nature you need to be with it and be in it.
As a fast moving generation we are not living in the core of Nature anymore; we have merely become a system that keeps the world running. And, in the process of reaching to this point in evolution as an intelligent species, we have abandoned many things without prior thought; the most precious of them being the wellness and prosperity of our home, Earth.
What I believe is that we, as humans, are the beings of emotion and mindfulness. For something to be felt important by us, we need to allot a part of our consciousness to it. Anything that doesn’t fall into our focus will eventually be snubbed by our minds. I feel that this is exactly what is happening to our connection with the environment.
The bonding between man and Nature is losing its value with each passing day of our living in the 21st century.
Knowing how to savour Nature is one of the most mindful and heartwarming things a human being can experience in his lifetime. To embellish our presence on this planet with a completeness of living, it is time for the modern mankind to fill their hearts with a spirit that is contained in the innards of Nature. Besides being the ambitious generation that we are who look up to greater heights of life, I believe that we ought to also know how to play our part in sustaining this nucleus of all life.
To do this, you need to start by understanding the nuances of Nature in whatever way that interests you. Nature appeals in different ways to different people, but the undeniable truth is that each and every person in the world, if he keeps looking, will find something in Nature that resonates with his spirit. This search will put him on the path to the discovery of metaphors between Nature and living. When that happens, our deep connection with the planet’s environment, a connection that is presently dormant within our hearts will be awakened and our ardour towards saving our surroundings rekindled.
I feel fortunate and honoured to say that three years ago, I have discovered my path to understanding Nature. This calling came to me from the soul stirring words found within the pages of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. And ever since, I’m being awakened into this spiritual love for Nature each day of my life.
For me, to sit alone in front of the early morning sun and fill the cells of my body with the warmth wrapped in the rays of sunlight is a great way to start a day. I love such moments particularly with a poetry book in my hands, or a book of nature writings by Thoreau.
Walking in the thicket of trees all alone helps me connect my spirit with the silence surrounding me. It transcends my mind into a meditative state where I feel reminiscent of my existence in this universe. When I ride my bicycle to a nearby pond on a holiday morning, the pleasant sounds of birds singing in the background offers me a delightful contrast from the urban cacophony I undergo in my daily life.
In addition to this, I also feel a special bonding with plants.
I greatly rejoice the touch a leaf or a flower, and wonder about the fabric with which it was created and brought into existence by Nature.
Back at my room, I have a plant that I take care of, which I named Helen. I love standing beside it for a moment every day relishing the simple beauty of its leaves and the design they form.
Looking at the plant blossom its first flower, I understood the metaphor of motherhood and what it means to create a new life from within you. During such moments, I go through a sense of communication with the plant. I feel that it is conscious of my attention towards it.
There are a plethora of such natural connections that I rejoice from the dawn of a new day to the darkness of every night. A concern and consciousness toward these things is what makes me feel more humane and attached to the environment as an entity of universe and creation that I am.
Having such intimate memories with Nature as a part of my spirit, I experience a type of wholeness and totality to my life.
The entirety of such experiences tells me how immeasurably invaluable this Nature is and how impalpable its complexity. This is what makes me revere the doctrine of environmental protection with all my heart. And this elegant beauty of Nature is also what moves me toward doing my part in protecting our planet from its ongoing decimation by human activity.
I have learnt to savour Nature in a way that is closest to my heart; hence, my fight to save it.
