Nourishment of Nature

Facebook is often dotted with expressions of nostalgia for times when we as children played in the wild, catching crawfish or crickets or fireflies, damming tiny streams or gobbling wild raspberries. Simultaneously to that play, however, developers were drooling over the profit potential of “empty” land, happily bulldozing scenic acres for homes or malls or office buildings. (Isn’t it odd how massive discount stores and their parking lots seem to have the best views?) I was one of those children who delighted in my secret space in the forest where I could sit undetected in a tiny glen on top of a carpet of wild wintergreen plants and cradled by towering pine trees to listen to the wind and birds. I hated the idea that people could pollute the water or smother endangered lady slipper flowers with fill dirt. Today the forest I loved is long gone, replaced with straight-line subdivisions. My grandchildren have no idea about the world that once fed my imagination. I am target audience for the film DARE TO BE WILD, currently available on Amazon Prime.

I’m assuming the real award-winning Mary Reynolds depicted in the film was a more dedicated version of me as she grew up in faery-blessed Ireland to be a landscape gardener. Unlike the stereotypical gardeners who wanted nothing more than to tame chaotic Nature by grooming choreographed quilts of compatible colors into obedient flowerbeds, Reynolds was passionate about the beauty of wild places. She wasn’t against development, but she contended that people are as much a part of nature as animals or plants. She insisted we need to relish our place on earth, not ignore it, to preserve our mental and physical health. Her garden designs reflected her passion by using wild plants to recreate natural spaces in garden or park areas where people could go to recharge themselves as they once played in wild places.

The price humans pay for paving their wilderness, ignoring Nature’s medicines, and celebrating only carefully modified vegetation is obvious. Stress levels are increasing as is the incidence of autoimmune diseases. We groom our competitive yards with chemicals that are not friends to human beings. To eliminate annoyances or merely for violent fun, we cull wild animals that were vital to the maintenance of natural spaces. We invent ready-made foods that have lost nutritional value by only mimicking natural flavors with substitutes that provide more profit than the originals. We poison wilderness to rip more resources from the earth, ignoring the permanent damage we do to the ecology. By neglecting ourselves as creatures, we open ourselves to the decay to which we’re exposing the earth. We have grievously underestimated our vulnerability.

We need to recall that so-called wild creatures that evolved in nature generally take only what they need from the land and don’t hesitate to use precious hours for play once they’re fed and watered. Many indigenous cultures followed their example, honoring the ability of the earth to mend and adjust itself. Most modern people can’t remember what cost-free play once looked like or how to reinvent it. We humans don’t need to abandon progress, but we do need to consider the long-range impacts we’re creating—especially whether we’re working against ourselves. Have you seen pics of a bear or dogs or elephants playing in a pond or sliding down a hill? Enjoying life in nature and the thrill of being able to have fun is miraculous tonic for all of us animals.