Noticing Summer practice - Week 3/8 - Theme: Nature
Surround yourself with nature, even if you spend this week in a city.
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
Mary Oliver, The Summer Day
I once realized that Mary Oliver has a poem for every moment in my life. No matter what’s happening, her words bring me solace and remind me of what this one wild and precious life is about. This one, The Summer Day, may be one of the most famous, but I bring it up here as it just fits perfectly for the week 3 of our Noticing Summer practice.
Below: a wonderful podcast interview with Mary Oliver, if you would like there’s also a longer, unedited version.
For me this week was rough, with my 13 months old son going through developmental milestones (hello first steps!), and having very patchy sleep schedule. So, as always, nature soothes me. I’m in a city center with a toddler, and as much as I would wish for being surrounded by nothing else but trees, plants, and a large body of water - I have to make the most of what’s available. I hope that where you live there are at least a few trees nearby, some birds, and plants at your home. It doesn’t need to be a full nature immersion (although would never say no to that), I encourage you to embrace the connection to other, non-human living beings that are present exactly where you are. After all we’re all a part of this tiny planet Earth suspended in the midst of an endlessly vast universe. I wrote an essay on the that which you can read here.
The prompts
1. Find a moment “to be idle and be blessed” while taking in all the nature you can find around you.
It can be as simple as looking at a tree, a plant, lying in grass, walking through a park or fields. Pick the wildest thing/path you can find and immerse yourself in it. Which elements mean summer to you?
2. Learn a new bird/plant/tree name that’s outdoor in your surroundings.
Read about it: how to distinguish it from other species, is it native or imported, what is the life cycle, does it bear fruits etc. Does knowing it change the way you feel about it?
3. Bring summer nature into your home
Flowers you picked on a walk, ripe fruits you bought at a market, stones or feathers you found lying around. Choose a special spot for them, almost like an altar for appreciation of nature. Your little summer nature shrine.
As always - curious to know what nature you find in your daily life this summer. Let me know in the comments and join the chat.