Nurtured by Nature

Reflection No. 25

Very few of us have the opportunity to live with the rhythm of nature anymore. City life has replaced tending the garden with the convenience of grocery stores. But there is a trend toward sustainability and artisanal ways of working and living. Evolution seems to be inviting us to get off the industrial-era fast track and return to a more natural and integrated flow of life. 

Maybe the inclination toward organic and biodynamic farming and foods is an intuitive urge to find our integrated relationship with nature again. This was not an issue when we depended on agriculture for our survival. But today we find ourselves so far removed from the natural rhythms that we yearn for something more. 

Elisabetta Foradori, a wine grower in Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy, wrote, “Nature is inviting us to listen and to consider every farming action as part of a complete cycle rather than an end unto itself. … We feel we are part of a natural cycle, are able to combine our knowledge with the intuitive understanding of nature, to be a part of its rhythms.” 

Our days keep us in myopic motion to avoid an essential emptiness that can easily be nurtured by nature. Surrender to it, find the time, the quiet moment alone with a blade of grass, a silently swaying tree or the aromatic bloom of a flower. Better still, plant a garden and eat from it. The experience will reveal a sense of belonging that only nature can provide.