Daily Attention to Tiny Wonder
Greetings from eastern Washington!
The next few weeks we’ll explore a series of simple, go-to daily practices that can support your nature attention (and play!) as we shift from winter to spring (here in the northern hemisphere).
I know for me the pace of modern life can creep in, make me start to lose track of what matters most, of how I actually want the rhythm of my days to feel.
There’s no magic antidote or quick cure-all or hack. But, when done over time, little by little, gentle curiosity with nature can effect deeper shifts within.
Cheers,
Jennifer
Founder, Ordinary Nature
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Weekly Reflection ✨🦉
- Weekly Practice 🌿🐾
- Resource: Science of Forest Bathing
- Little Tender Things 💚
WEEKLY REFLECTION
Go Small to Get Big
Jennifer Ruth Keller
Sometimes when I’m yearning for big change I get reminded how going small can have gigantic effects.
Like last week I had a stretch of days where, in some ideal world with zero limits, I would have hopped on a plane to New Zealand to abruptly engage a long-deferred dream of harvesting grapes in their vineyards and learning how to make world-class white wine.
I won’t get into the reasons why doing that wasn’t tenable last Sunday afternoon. And I’ll trust that you won’t—unlike flippant commenters on the internet!—blithely react with “Well, you could just do that, couldn’t you?” [Have you ever had a stranger deliver that sort of reaction to you? I have. It’s flummoxing and enraging all at once.]
Instead of the vineyards of New Zealand, I went to the gardens of our local library. Now, it would be artifice to say it didn’t matter, that the gardens did whatever I thought the vineyards of NZ might deliver into my life.
But, the gardens were gloriously themselves, just as they are, and that is where this nature thing starts to work its unabashed magic.
I strolled along the paths through each themed garden, the grey sky and winter chill leading me to think no verdant life would be there to greet me. And, as is often the case, I was wrong!
Little brittle buds of delicate floral beauty popped out here and there. Newly burst-through, green buds of fresh growth were interwoven with the last stages of winter dormancy.
Tree by tree, plant by plant, if I paused, or–even better–crouched low to the ground to spend a couple minutes with the dangling white bells of the snowdrop clusters, my mind let go of being somewhere else and let itself be fully there, with my body, in the garden.
The motion of accumulated ideas and worries (and New Zealand fantasies!) slipped away across the detritus of magnolia leaves and pine needles on the ground. In their place, the simple, sensate zone of presence seeped in. Not through tightly focused effort, but through a non-rushed, non-demanding tending to whatever was before me, with me, in the garden space.
Doesn’t mean I’ll stop dreaming about making wine in New Zealand. Or move through life always in the zone of presence. I will mess up at least as often as I settle into the rhythm of specific, place-based attending and “being with.”
But “going small” with my attention is what I can do, again and again, until it more often becomes my default form of movement with other beings in nature. It’s what I can do, simply because, as a human, I’m nature too.
WEEKLY PRACTICE INVITATION:
The what: Go tiny to get big.
Which means: As winter shifts into spring these next weeks (or, if you are in the southern hemisphere, summer shifts into autumn) take a slow, leisurely stroll and open your eyes to little bits of evidence of the season’s change.
Then: Go close-in. How many things could you notice about your new nature friend? How might you introduce them to someone else? What might they be expressing to you?
Next steps: Try it every day. Like a playful dare with yourself. If you’re a person who recognizes Lent: could you meet a tiny nature friend every day for 40 days? If you’re not a person who recognizes Lent: could you meet a tiny nature friend every day for 40 days?
Try it! And let me know how it goes!
Curious about the science of forest-bathing?
I did my 6-month training in forest bathing guiding with the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT).
They have a great hub for the scientific research on forest bathing, available here.
LITTLE TENDER THINGS
Whoops! Little wild rose bloom,
I see you’ve dared to greet us early,
risked the sharp touch
of winter frost
and frigid temps.
Papery petals like skin
in the breeze, may I touch you?
Have a “little tender thing” you’d like to submit and share?
Let me know!
