It snowed today in Pittsburgh - big white slushy snowflakes - but the good thing was that it still smelled like spring. The snow didn't stick, and couldn't hide the smell of wet soil and new green things. I'm thinking spring is right around the corner - one more week max of this cold weather.... puhleeze?

I got a little feedback about my first post that maybe my words about nature were just a little too Kumbaya-ish - that I failed to recognize all the bad things that arise from the natural world, like earthquakes, cancer, wildfires, hurricanes, plagues. 

Exactly my point. We each have our own beliefs or perceptions about nature - from Kumbaya-butterflies-fluffy clouds nature (cue humming and bonfire smoke) to the mighty-powerful-unpredictable-and-often-cruel force (cue lightning bolts and thunder claps). And maybe we are all correct. The natural world (including us humans) is complex and chaotic and capable of destruction. And it is beautiful and mysterious and capable of healing. Both views can be true.

What determines our views? Our experiences with the natural world itself? Our experiences with other humans? Maybe a little of both? I once read a study in which adults were asked to describe their feelings and perceptions about their parents, and then were later asked about their picture of God. The researcher found that the individuals who had positive relationships with their parents, characterized by nurturing and trust, described a loving and forgiving God, and those who had painful relationships with their parents, involving loss or abuse or neglect, described an angry, judgmental, and punitive God. I don't know if this makes any sense in terms of our perceptions of nature, but we do know that the quality of early relationships has an impact on how we see the world in general as we mature. Our early relationships lay the foundation for cognitive schemata that shape our world-view, our first go-to interpretation of what is in front of us.

Or maybe our perceptions of the natural world are more simply informed by our direct experience, or lack of experience, with it. A counselor I know worked with urban youth who were frequently exposed to and involved in violent life-threatening events. She took the youth on a night-time hike through woods into a large star-lit meadow - maybe hoping to inspire feelings of awe and wonder, thoughts of one's place in the universe. What was inspired was terror! These cocky 16 and 17 year old almost-men were frightened by the open spaces and the dark, and by the unfamiliarity of their surroundings. Mission aborted. I think we are often frightened by what we don't know, what we don't understand, and what we cannot control. And nature can certainly fall in this category.

Something influences our views of nature - something or some things unique to each of us. What has shaped your views?

Mine have changed over the years - keep in mind that I have never experienced a flood or hurricane or earthquake or another tragic natural disaster. My views have ranged from curiosity during childhood, when the outdoors was our world and mysteries abounded.... to occasional indifference during high school alternating with some Kumbaya times at church retreats (okay, I admit it!).... to respect and awe and curiosity again, and even shyness, as an adult. I feel shyness as I learn to plant my first kind of big garden - like I am finally getting to know someone well who has been around for a long time, and I don't exactly know what to say or do, and I am wondering if that someone will find me worthy! (You might understand my doubts when you hear that my first garden yielded one - yes ONE (1) - zucchini! I have never ever met anyone who got only one zucchini! I was truly humbled.)


For some reason, a constant through my life has been a love of thunderstorms - the louder the better. I think they remind me that there is something much bigger and more powerful than I am out there, and that feels reassuring and safe to me.


And now that I am thinking about it, these changes kind of parallel my spiritual development and political growth through life. Does that make sense? I know I cannot separate my feelings and thoughts about sustainable living and the natural world from my values, politics, imagination, and spiritual life. I suspect this might be true of others as well. What do you think?

Language is so tricky, isn't it? 

I think about this often when I hear talk about getting out into "nature," or saving the "environment." Language is tricky because we humans are not separable from "nature" and the "environment." It is not an us-them situation, where people are standing outside of nature, making choices about whether to protect or destroy an environment that is not us. It is all ONE - we are all ONE. In fact, we humans are so deeply embedded in and inseparable from our environment that we are utterly dependent upon the breath of trees and the water and food in the rivers and the vibrant soil that feeds our veggies and fruits.

Questions -- how would you describe your own personal relationship with the earth? How do you feel about nature? What are your beliefs?

How we answer these questions will help us understand how we have gotten where we are, and how to get to a better place. What is our relationship with the earth? Do we see ourselves as caretakers, benevolent aunts and uncles who act as protectors? Do we see ourselves as masters of the universe, entitled to do what we wish with the earth's bounty? Or do we see our relationship with the earth as a reciprocal one - where there is interdependence? 

Do we feel scared, or awed, or curious, or angry in relation to nature? Or indifferent? Or grateful?

Do we believe that there is an endless supply of all that we need, that what we take from the earth will naturally or maybe magically regenerate or be replenished? Do we believe that there are limits? Wow. Limits. That's a topic for another day.

So much of how we answer these questions depends upon what our own lives have been like. Someone who has experienced Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana or the recent devastating earthquake-tsunami-nuclear crisis in Japan will answer the questions differently from someone who has never been without access to safe food and shelter. 

How we answer these questions collectively will directly influence what happens in the present and future. 

I am curious about how a healthy collective vision develops, particularly in the bitter bi-partisan atmosphere in our own country. I am curious about this, and I suspect, I hope that a healthy collective vision grows from the ground up. From parent to child, neighbor to neighbor, community to community. This gives me hope.

Yes, language is tricky and it is powerful. Think about the words of HOPE, ONE, NEIGHBOR, COLLECTIVE, SAFE, HEALTHY. Feel the words -- hold them in your heart and share them with others and see what grows.