face THE NATURAL WORLD
“Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction.”
-E. O. Wilson
The environmental dilemma of today is profound. Perhaps the ultimate conglomeration of every other issue we are facing. Simultaneously a battle against ourselves and a negotiation of peace with the planet. We are battling a notion of human exceptionalism with the notion that we are an exception to the laws of nature. We are an un-unified society trying to address an already blurry enemy. Waking up in the way of environmental preservation is directly connected to every other awakening; the environment is not the enemy–rather, it is the ultimate mirror for the imbalance within the human species.
In my travels, I have consistently followed the topography. With geographical beauty as my compass, I have found myself in some of the most awe-inspiring places I can imagine. I consider myself a “beauty chaser”. I do this because these moments in nature are the most authentic and naturally ego-shrinking of any I’ve yet to know. They are the profound wisdom of the physical world penetrating my being without any effort. They are glimpses of the power of the natural world and vessels into my inescapable connection to it. Naturally, I find myself overflowing with gratefulness for this planet — this refuge from the cold, dark, space in which we are floating and spinning. Consistently, I am brought to my knees by the reality of it all. But then it’s time to descend, time to re-join a world of egotism and separation, and I am quick to assimilate.
Towards The Light Nelson Lakes, New Zealand
What I worry is that our continuing disconnection from nature is going to be our end, and a tragic waste of this precious series of evolutionary traits we have collected and called “Human”. However, I believe that we are wiser than this. I believe that we can zoom out, see and feel the majesty and wisdom of the planet, and likewise the same qualities in ourselves. We can realize that the planet will survive with or without us, but that we will not survive without the planet. We can re-define the battle against climate change to be an alliance with the planet against the selfishness and separateness within us. Like each of us, the planet wants to survive, and like the foundations of each of our beings, the planet understands that salvation comes through homeostasis. In this way, should we open our eyes to the Earth as an ally, as a divine teacher, we can open ourselves to the importance of sustaining the Human species and the ways in which to do so.
In this section, I will examine practical ways in which we can work towards this new paradigm. By changing the way we relate to the natural world, connecting to it more deeply, by osmosis we are adopting the profound wisdom that it contains. As more of us begin this process, we are creating a wave. And this wave, unlike those produced by melting glaciers, is a wave of awakening.
Tongariro Turquoise New Zealand