I received an excited message from a friend asking me if I knew what plant she had seen.
I thought I had found a new species,
She said,
With a sense of deflation when I told her its name.
You did,
I said.
When we see something we've never seen before,
We are the first person to ever see it.
It is rediscovered to the world all over again.
It's a profound gift to ourselves and the plant,
That excitement of discovery.
What is seen once will be seen again.
It's how we learn and grow throughout our lives.
Once our eyes and hearts are open,
We discover.
This is one of the traits held by everyone who really loves to be in nature.
They are always looking,
Not just a glance,
But a deep inquiry.
They see the patterns and notice what is unknown to their eye.
They feel the textures and recognise old friends through touch,
Or new friends through smell.
To us in our nature-disconnected collective state,
Some things can look the same at first glance,
But our ancestors would have seen significant differences.
In the UK,
In early spring,
Cow parsley begins to adorn the grasslands and the road verges.
In our cars,
We speed past billowing clouds of white stars,
Bringing light to our day.
The cow parsley begins to fade,
But the white stars do not.
Rough chervil steps forward.
The texture of the stems,
The differences in the petals and the height are all too subtle when passing at speed or simply throwing a nodding glance their way.
It's only when you look closely with all your senses that the differences are clear.
Then rough chervil fades,
But the white stars do not.
Hedge parsley comes to the fore.
The differences are there to be ignored unless you choose to stop and take them in.
I doubt our ancestors overlooked the differences that are so subtle to us now.
To them,
They were probably as clear as day.
They would have recognised differences in plants and animals the same way we so easily recognise differences in individual people.
We may have lost a lot of nature knowledge collectively,
But we haven't lost the aptitude.
Curiosity is a funny thing.
Once activated,
It is hard to switch off.
Nature wisdom is profoundly sensory.
Even in the most urban of spaces,
Nature is wriggling through cracks in the pavement to bring colour to the grey,
Or blowing breeze through your hair,
Soaking you to the skin or warming you from the outside in and the inside out.
Reconnecting to nature happens through our senses.
Stroking a leaf,
Smelling a flower,
Listening to the water,
Watching the shifting light or clouds,
Tasting the air.
All of these speak to a deep part of who you are.
Sensory listening awakens your DNA and transports you both beyond and deep within to find new realms of self.
It is innate and available to everyone.
You do not have to travel to the wilderness to reconnect,
Because nature is seeking to burst through wherever you look.
And when you invite it in,
You will discover more and more of it to awaken your senses and your soul.
