How to Let Go and ReNature

Close your eyes and imagine yourself as a child, playing outside. Picture a time when you felt interconnected and whole. Where were you and what were you doing?

As for me, I have a memory of sitting in my backyard as a child. I was underneath a canopy of trees, looking up at the dappled sunlight streaming through the leaves. It must have been one of my purest moments of being “in the flow” because I come back to that image again and again when I think about my life and my place in it.

I dream of that dappled sunlight and the blue sky beyond, that sense of getting lost in the beauty of it all. I’d like that view to be there not just for those of us who drive out of town to see “nature” but for the pedestrian walking down the city sidewalk, the apartment dweller with no patch of land to call her own, the inner city elder at higher risk of heat-related illness, and for my children, right here in their backyard.

Re-orienting ourselves away from a consumer mindset and toward nature does not mean settling for less. Instead, it means imagining more beautiful, healthy, and inspiring cities, and the connectedness and grounding that comes from living there.

When we find the forest outside our window, we’re not only valuing the trees themselves, but we’re also restoring the daily experience of nature, which has a transformative impact on our well-being and sense of self.