I'm relaunching this blog after a period of dormancy. It will mainly focus on Daoism and nature connection, but who knows what else might pop up? I've been engaging in some more intensive Daoist study the last few years, and especially the last six months (more on that later). To begin I thought I'd share some of my past writing before adding new content.
This is the first in a series of blog posts adapted from my 2016 book, Tao of Sustainability: Cultivate Yourself to Heal the Earth.
Some of my
earliest memories are of nature. In Australia we lived on a dead end street. At
the end were Weeping Willows which we walked through like we were opening beaded
curtains, as a shortcut to the neighborhood park. A few years later I remember
following deer trails and watching out for Poison Oak in the hills of
California. Where nature and history connected in our neighborhood, leaving remnants
of old stone walls and foundations partially overgrown, we pretended we were lost boys in Neverland, and perhaps in some sense we were.
As a child I had a close connection
with nature. Although if you had asked me I might not have even been aware of
it, as this is something all children have naturally. It is only when we lose
it that we get into trouble. We often don’t even know we’ve lost it. We may
just sense a void in our lives or a sense that something is lacking. We may
just feel frustrated or lonely.
Often we blame circumstances or the
people in our lives for these feelings, not realizing that it is our
disconnection from the rest of nature which may be at the root of these
feelings. I say “the rest of nature” because you are part of nature too. We
often forget that. Sometimes simply reminding ourselves of that can take the
edge off of our negative feelings. At other times we may need to actually get
out in nature and reconnect with all of our senses.
As many of us do, at some point in my
life I lost that sense of connection with nature. In fact I’ve probably lost it
several times over the course of my life. If I think back to time periods when I
was the most frustrated or irritable or depressed, it was always when I wasn’t
spending enough time relating with nature.
As a teenager I became an alienated
punk rocker. I spent most of my time skateboarding or in my room with friends
listening to music. At least we got some exercise through skateboarding, but
our focus was on the concrete jungle not the pervasive natural world
surrounding us.
Later in my college years I began to
reconnect with nature. I spent more time with friends hiking and camping in the
mountains of Idaho. We took up rock climbing and went on backpacking trips. At
the same time I began to discover some of the wisdom traditions of Asia. I
began to read books on Buddhism and Taoism, and found inspiration in their view
of the natural world. I went on to pursue Asian Studies in college with a focus
on Chinese language and culture. I also began to study taijiquan (tai chi) and
qigong.
At the same time I minored in horticulture
which led me to working with plants, first through landscaping and eventually
as an organic farmer. It is work I still enjoy, though these days mostly in my
own yard and vegetable garden.
After a few years working for an
organic CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm, I returned to the academic
world to study acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine. While Chinese medicine
stresses humans’ connection with nature, the academic environment of the classroom
doesn’t. I found myself once again slipping out of touch with nature.
It was about this time that I
discovered the idea of natural movement and the work of Erwan Le Corre through a
YouTube video called “The Workout the World Forgot.” Le Corre’s system of
physical education, called MovNat also stresses a
deep connection to nature. I began to study and eventually teach natural
movement practices based on this system.
In the last several years I’ve been
more focused on deepening my own connection with nature as well as helping
others reconnect. I stressed this in my acupuncture practice and when I led
groups in natural movement practice or taijiquan and qigong. While I enjoyed advising
individual patients and small groups in my classes, I wanted to reach out to
more people and share some of what I’ve learned to help more people reconnect
with nature. That’s why I’ve written this book (that I'm now sharing much from as a blog)
As I’ll discuss further, our
disconnection from nature hurts us all, both individually and collectively.
Individually it affects our health in negative ways, both physically and mentally.
Collectively it affects our societies through our interaction with each other
as well as how we as societies interact with the Earth. We seem to be reaching
a critical period where we will be forced one way or another to alter the way
we live on this planet.
We can either embrace this change as a
wonderful opportunity to discover and create new ways to live with the Earth,
perhaps even learning from the Earth itself; or we can remain in denial with
business as usual until we are forced to change. If we wait to be forced, will
we change in time?
These things can get a bit heavy
sometimes, seeming hopeless. It is easy to feel overwhelmed, especially if we
focus on the environmental problems our disconnection has led to, but I remain
very optimistic about the future. Often it seems that things will never change
until suddenly, a tipping point is reached and seemingly overnight, dramatic
changes happen.
Postscript: My book was published at the beginning of 2016, before anyone had heard of the #SchoolStrike movement or Greta Thunberg. Before she, and so many other teenagers like Jamie Margolin, the founder of Zero Hour had begun the movement that has captured the world's imagination and drawn so many of us into the streets in support of the students. But as we watch this movement unfold, it's really starting to feel like a tipping point. May it be so.
(Adapted from my book Tao of Sustainability, 2016, Three Pines Press)
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