Some Thoughts on "Nature"

As I mentioned last week the Year of The Coyote has begun.  14 adults have started their yearlong mentoring journey with Wild Intelligence.  

What a year it is going to be! 

This year some of us who have graduated from the program were invited to visit with the new Coyotes on Sunday.  We were asked to consider being anchors for them during their year.  Being their anchors we will offer support and share in their excitement, stories and triumphs over this next year.   Sara Callaway, our adult programs director asked us to consider this question as well as prepared to answer it for this year’s Coyotes.

 “What are you passionate about it in Nature?”

 How am I supposed to answer that?

 My immediate answer is, “What am I NOT passionate about in nature?”

 To know what I am passionate about I have to know what nature is.

 For me, Nature is everything when I slow down enough to see it.

 It is every moment.

 It is the Past, Present, and Future.

 It is emotion.

 It is instinct.

 Nature is the sound of a Blue Jay juvenile doing its best to sing like the other birds in the woods.  (It can try as hard as it wants, but it never will.  Its vocal chords just aren’t built that way).

 Nature is two male squirrels fussing at each other because they are both on the edge of their territory at the same time.  They both want to make sure the other knows not to come any further.  This little spot is there little piece of the wood that they have settled for their family.  It has just enough food for them and no one else.

 Nature is the dance of the leaves blowing to the forest floor in the breeze that carries fall. 

 Nature isn’t just happening outside in the woods.

 Nature is happening everywhere else as well. 

 Spiders are building webs in the corners of our houses.  There must be something there to eat or they wouldn’t do it over and over.

 Dead skin cells are being rubbed off every time we itch or wash our skin.  At the same time they are being replaced by new living skin cells.

Bacteria and the other micro-organisms that live in and on our bodies are helping us to digest our food, regulate our body temperate, fight off other bacteria and so much more.

 Pulse waves that are barely detectable are in constant conversation with each other. Their whole purpose is to keep the different parts of our bodies functioning properly.

 I mean, WOW!

 I don’t have to look very far to find Nature.

 It is everywhere.

 Nature is everything – All at once.

 To find it and to know it I have to slow down and pay attention to it.

 Today, the answer I have to that great thought provoking question of: What am I passionate about in nature?

 I am passionate about everything and continuing to learn the interconnectedness of it all.

 I am even passionate about mosquitoes and ticks (even though it takes a lot of effort on my part).

I am most passionate about continuing to learn how to be more present to all the life that is happening all the time.

According the Bushido Code of the Samurai… “There is life in every breath...”

I might say, “There is nature in every breath.””

Until next time,

Sarah Hubbard