Lessons from Nature

What can nature teach us about life and spirituality?

Nature has such a powerful affect on our mind and soul. It connects with something deep within us beyond words, and yet at times seems to be so at odds with the culture and society that we live in.

I don’t know about you but at least once every day (often more than once) I find myself wondering why life is so frenetic; whether it is the constant drive for efficiency and effectiveness in work, the seeming inability to be out of contact with other people for any length of time, or the feeling that I need to be successful and achieve something amazing.

It is this feeling and the associated frustration it generates that caused me to search more deeply for meaning and purpose within life. Through this searching I began to spend more time in isolation, meditating on both sacred scriptures and my thoughts and feelings trying to find some light.

It was during this time that I learnt some profound lessons from nature. Most things in nature take place in a slow and deliberate way, so slow sometimes that it can seem nothing purposeful is happening. Yet very little in nature happens without a purpose. This I believe is the first lesson I learned; when it seems as if nothing is happening in life, rather maybe, it is happening slowly requiring more patience.

The second lesson I have learned from nature is to notice the patterns in life. Nature is rhythmic and cyclical; the seasons, the lunar cycle, the tides, the menstrual cycle all involve repetition and follow a rhythm. By slowing down and becoming more aware of the ‘seasons of life’, remembering that each season is temporary and will pass in time, I am more able to weather the storms that come my way.

The third thing I have learned from nature is the innate wisdom of self-acceptance it possesses. Things in nature don’t strive to be anything other than what they are. Take a tree, it does not try to be more like a mountain because it is a tree. It seems to be a very human condition to strive to be something or someone else, rather than being the best version of me that I can be. It is easy never to feel content by striving to be something we are not, rather than investing time in understanding who and what we are as an individual.

“But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you.“

Job 12-7-8