Getting Curious About Nature
A Rewilding Mind
Hi there, it’s Hillarie! This is a newsletter about nature and how we connect to it. A Rewilding Mind is here to provide ideas, inspiration, and stories to help you return to nature, find to yourself, and create community. Keep reading for my latest thoughts on my journey back to nature.
Curiosity Will Connect Us
Dear friends,
Here in the Pacific Northwest, we are nearing our last frost date, which is the time when we can finally get things planted outside in the garden! After an upward trend of warm days, we were hit with some freezing rain over the weekend, reminding me that nature cares not what the Farmer’s Almanac has to say about ideal growing times. Nature is running on her own clock and is once again unbothered my little plans to be outside in the sun. That was cute thought. She is the sun, and she will come when the time is right.
This week, I took a note from nature and let my newsletter deadline slip. But after nearly 6 months of writing weekly, I am proud of myself for making it this far. That said, I had some nature thoughts on my mind that I wanted to get out to you. And, LBH, I can’t break my Monday streak.
I usually do my writing Sunday evening, but I intentionally took a break so I could have some time to recover from a busy weekend and a stomach bug. I often get so caught up in the doing of life that I forget that it is okay to just be still and quiet. Being in motion feels more comfortable than slowing down and being present—I think there is a theory about that somewhere. The muscle memory is a hard thing to turn off after a lifetime of marching to the beat of productivity.
So instead, I took some time to quiet down and tune in. I set down my notebooks, closed out of my task lists, and tried to be present. I sat in the middle of my yard for nearly twenty minutes attempting to embody the quiet confidence of my blushing tulips and the resilience of the dandelions that persist through my Mean Girl glances. They have no opinions or expectations of themselves or each other, and I love them for that.
As I sat amongst a patch of flowers and/or weeds, my anxiety about all the things I should be doing began to melt away. After some time staring aimlessly out into the yard, my eyes started to land on things that lit up my wonder and curiosity. Before I tell you what those are, let me tell you why it is necessary for us to have big feelings of awe, wonder, and curiosity when we spend time in nature.
“Experiencing awe often puts people in a self-transcendent state where they focus less on themselves and feel more like a part of a larger whole. In this way, awe can be considered an altered state of consciousness, akin to a flow state, in addition to an emotional state.”
Did you read that? How did that make you feel? First of all, that sounds like a free high to me. Second, we are literally dying of loneliness so we better start figuring out a solution. Hint: technology is not the answer. My point is, we have got to believe in the awesomeness planet and the amazing brilliance in each other if we are going to if we are going to save it.
Back to me in my yard. The area is filling with wildflowers and I got stuck on the patches of bluebells scattered across my yard. Looking down the stalk, I noticed the deer had munched off all the foliage on the bluebells but left the flowers. My eyes scan the across the yard other patches of bluebells and all of them are grazed off. How interesting to see what those things will and won’t eat.
My brain switches back to my undone to-dos for work, kids, family, yard, cars, etc. I am pulled back into this space when a pair of hummingbirds zip through the yard, making their high-pitched chirps every time they dived down from the trees. They were bringing Friday energy on a Monday, and while I couldn’t match the enthusiasm, I appreciated it.
It’s so fun to have those wonderful, Peter-Pan-like moments in nature, where things are allowed to be strange, illogical, gross, mysterious, and awkward. Brief moments when it is not about what having the most fun or getting the greatest value. It is just about being. Getting to experience that once in a while is important to remember that we are also all of those things. And we are all deeply connected.
More on this later. Thanks for joining me on this writing journey. If you know someone who would like to read a modern black girl’s perspective on nature, please forward this along.
Stay curious, be kind, and take care,
Hillarie