E 174 4 Lessons from Nature

Join us today as we explore 4 ways we are currently engaging in nature.   We hope this inspires you to find your own inspiration outdoors.

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Transcript

4 Lessons from Nature

Episode 174.

[00:00:02] Chris: Hello. It's great to be with you today. We are sharing four lessons from nature that have been meaningful to us lately. And I thought I would kick off our podcast with a quote from Richard Rohr and the cosmic Christ that I've been reflecting on lately that has sent me on this journey of thinking of lessons from nature and the quote.

[00:00:28] Go something like this.

[00:00:29] Creation was the first incarnation, or you could say that nature was the first incarnation, where God imbued himself into something. And so as I bring up this notion of Learning from creation. I know we learn from biblical text. We learn from perennial wisdom. We learn from all sorts of places, but learning from nature is what we want to bring up today.

[00:00:58] What comes up for you, Christina? 

[00:01:00] Christina: I really appreciate this topic because nature is such a big part of my spirituality. And I would say the first thing has to do with the woods near our house. So we live near a marsh that's about a block and a half away. And I walk there pretty much every day and have lived here for five years.

[00:01:15] So there's a lot of history that I have with the woods near our home. And recently the Department of Natural Resources did a prescribed burn at the woods. And prior to moving to Madison, I was never exposed to that, but I have come to learn that from time to time, particular areas of nature have either disease that they want to get under control, or there's a lot of dead Leaves and branches and things like that need to be disposed of so that new life can come And so I recently went for a walk in the woods and it's black there's soot everywhere There's some charred smell when you walk into the woods And at first it can seem a little bit depressing like okay Everything's dark and bleak and there's nothing pleasant for the eye to grab hold of and the smell isn't very fresh either And yet i've come to appreciate this Idea of fire and the importance of fire in nature and the prescribed burns and really getting rid of that, which is excess that which takes away from so that new life can come.

[00:02:19] And sure enough, as I've been walking here recently, that has happened. There was flourishing happening in the woods that likely would not have happened without the prescribed burned. So I guess my first lesson from nature is the necessity sometimes for fire and burning away. That which is not healthy and good.

[00:02:38] And again, that's not my go to when I think about the ancient texts that you're bringing up the Bible, I don't tend to like gravitate towards images of fire necessarily. And yet it's all over the place, sprinkled in the scriptures this image of fire and the necessity of fire in our lives and the goodness that it brings.

[00:02:54] So that would be my first nature lesson.

[00:02:57] Chris: Lovely. Yeah, I've also been experiencing prescribed burns and I, I have the same viscerally action whenever I walk. It's oh what was once beautiful and green or getting ready to be beautiful and green. You're wondering, oh is this just going to wipe out the vegetation, but lo and behold, the Like it comes back greener, it comes back healthier.

[00:03:24] And so I agree with you. I don't necessarily think of fire purification or cleansing. They're not metaphors that I naturally go to, but I have appreciated watching these prescribed burns as well. I think whenever I think about nature, what comes to mind for me is The whole seasonality of nature seasons particularly light and darkness.

[00:03:54] We're in late spring right now and where we're at right now in Wisconsin. It's dawn somewhere around five o'clock and it's, light out until about 8, 15, 8 30. And so there's a lengthening of days.

[00:04:14] And one of the things that I've really appreciated about this season is because it's lighter for longer periods of time. Our sun. Has been staying outside as soon as he gets home from school for hours and hours, and there's this play. There's this energy that is in the season of spring.

[00:04:34] There's just a whole lot of creativity a lot of life happening. And so I've really appreciated that about spring, but I've also come to to Learn to embrace the season of winter and summer and fall, they all have things to teach us. And, we came from winter and we're now in spring.

[00:04:55] And I think there, there can be a tendency to want to avoid what we learn in the seasons. I think of the darkness, I think of the things that are happening In the dormant parts of winter, those are not particularly fun things to embrace or to look at. But without darkness, without the cold, bitter seasons, the growth that is happening underneath like in the prescribed burn, right?

[00:05:24] There's growth happening underneath that you can't see, I think, has been super meaningful for me in this season. 

[00:05:31] Christina: Yeah, I agree with you as far as light and longer days bringing a different energy. I was joking around with someone and said, yeah, our entire city's in a good mood this week because the weather is nice and there's lightness out and it just seems to lift the spirit.

[00:05:44] So I appreciate that. I would say the third lesson that I'm learning from nature is what I'm calling clumped up roots. And let me explain what I mean by that. I'm sure we've all experienced a time where maybe you're taking a plant or an herb and repotting it into a different soil. If you lift up the plant from the smaller pot, it takes the shape of that small container and the roots are all clumped up.

[00:06:09] And if you're going to transplant that into a different larger pot, or, if you buy a starter plant and you're going to plant it outside in a garden, you have to shake the roots a little bit and get it untangled from the clumpiness in order to put it into the new pot or soil. And I've just been sitting with that image lately of the pot and the soil and the clumpiness of the roots and how at times in order to flourish and to expand, we have to get outside of the container into that, but there is a clumpiness and there's a little bit of awkwardness, all of a sudden there's this, small circle shaped plant into a larger container that doesn't quite fit yet, right?

[00:06:46] It hasn't expanded and grown and it could feel awkward. But just sitting with the sort of importance of that imagery in my own life. It reminds me of a Instagram person that I follow. Not that I'm even on Instagram that much. Actually, probably more his website, but scottthepainter. com. And he's a modern iconographer.

[00:07:06] He does, images and icons. And I really appreciate some of his work. And he's often having images around soil, pot, busting outside of a container, those sorts of things. And I don't know, I find that. Is a helpful image that I've been sitting with lately is the clumped up roots.

[00:07:21] Chris: I too really appreciate the image that you're bringing forward, the clumped up roots. And I think what comes to mind for me is the power of yes. I, if you think about these clumped up roots you have to say yes. To, to new experiences, to growth, to stretching. And I think a lot of times it's just easier to stay in that safe container.

[00:07:48] And it reminds me of another quote. I think it goes something like, and the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. And so the power of, yes, requires the stretching, this growing. For us to reach beyond where we're at in life. And so I appreciate you bringing that image forward to us as well.

[00:08:14] I think the lesson that I'm also learning about nature is that nature is communal. So I've been walking in prairies a lot lately and just seeing the different vegetation, seeing the different animals, and they all have this relationship with one another.

[00:08:33] This relationship with one another that causes the ecosystem to flourish, right there. They're all feeding and giving life to one another. And thinking about how that translates into spirituality and faith. You're one of the things I've been thinking about lately is the pandemic has been.

[00:08:53] Disruptive to a lot of people's communal experiences, right? A lot of people haven't found their way back into a faith community, into temple, mosque. And so there's this disruption that has happened. And so I really have appreciated looking at. The communal aspects of faith and trying to lean into those.

[00:09:18] And I think nature has been so helpful for me of leaning into community. I was listening to a transfer of leadership happened within an organization. In our area. And one of the things that was said was that the new sort of faith expression is as the Senga it's in community.

[00:09:40] And I think there's so much power that community brings to our life. It is. Seriously, life giving it. It is necessary for us to grow. It is necessary for us to flourish. And I think nature just reminds me of that in a way that is powerfully speaking to not only me personally, but to the communities of which I participate.

[00:10:05] Christina: Yeah, and I think if I'm hearing you, Chris, you're describing kind of nature knowing itself and the ecosystem I would build off of that. And I think nature itself is communal and also my engagement with nature creates community and whether that's to nature, but also kind of person to person. With nature I think evokes community I'm thinking of this past weekend.

[00:10:27] We were on a hike with some friends and there was a, what's called the sunset tower. And so we went up to the sunset tower and spent a good 20 minutes watching the full Sunset experience, which it's been a while since I've actually sat and watched an entire sunset happening. And there was a handful of people on this tower with us and having that community experience together was beautiful.

[00:10:53] It was breathtaking. It was lovely. It was sacred. Afterwards we were reflecting on like everybody loved it. And it was a wide variety of ages that were on the platform together, sharing that and just a really rich experience to have that. Enriched our community shortly after the sunset.

[00:11:09] gazing. We built a campfire and here we are back again to fires, but I'm sitting around the campfire. There's something about having fire together that I think also just evokes good conversation. And, you're out in the fresh air and in nature. And so experiencing not only the community of nature itself and, the trees are in community with each other and, the birds and the worms and all of that kind of stuff.

[00:11:30] But also people and the ways that we can engage communally I find really enriching. 

[00:11:34] Chris: And I will add food was a part of that experience, right? We ate together, we grilled together and I was, noticing whenever I was last on the prairie, like the birds that were gathered together in this one spot and they were eating and they were chirping and it was this beautiful experience of song and eating.

[00:11:54] And I think we as people experienced that too, right? I think that eating together is a communal experience. Experience. And so I appreciate you telling that story. 

[00:12:02] Christina: So for those that like recaps, our four lessons from nature are the prescribed burns and the power of sometimes having fire or something that seems really dead and black that actually underneath the soil there's nourishment and a rejuvenation happening that we can't see that sort of mystery.

[00:12:19] The second being seasons and embracing particularly the season that Chris is thinking about right now is the length of light compared to darkness in our seasons. The third is the clumped up roots. And the last one that we described today was nature is communal.

[00:12:33] Chris: So those are just four ways of which nature can speak to us. I'm sure there are many more. I'm sure you are experiencing wonderful things for nature. It was just a joy to have this conversation and we hope that you enjoyed it as well. And now is the part of the podcast where we talk about what we are into.

[00:12:58] So what are we into? 

[00:13:00] Christina: So I am in something, I am into something that's not quite nature oriented, but we just got a new fridge as a family. And it's one of those double door fridges with the bottom freezer, which we've never had before. We've had freezer on top. We've had the side by side and our side by side went kaputs recently.

[00:13:15] And so we just got a new fridge. We bought this new fridge and I am loving it. It's humongous. So we can fit a lot of containers and jars. I love the different sections and nooks and it's just very spacious and I'm loving our new appliance. So that is what I am into. 

[00:13:30] Chris: It is pretty awesome. I have enjoyed it as well, but the thing that I'm into right now is different bird songs this past weekend, me and my son went on a bird a thon it was a guided tour someone in the community.

[00:13:46] Who's so knowledgeable of birds. I, had my little Merlin app and I, I was listening to the different bird sounds, but this guide That was taking us just knew all the different bird calls and I was just shocked and I learned so many new things. I didn't know that some birds are parasites.

[00:14:08] So there's a particular bird called a cowbird and cowbirds have this fun little call. Different birds have different places that they land in the trees and cowbirds like to be in the top so they can look out to when other birds leave the nest. And what they like to do is they like to fly into that nest and they like to lay their eggs.

[00:14:29] So other birds do the work of of hatching. these particular cowbirds into being. And so I didn't know that birds were parasites, but it was so fun just hearing all the different calls and even, the guide describing the different sounds with a human voice was super

[00:14:51] enlightening. So I have been into bird calls. Thank you so much for joining us. It was a pleasure to be with you today. Hope to see you again soon.