It’s In Your Nature
Once a year, when I taught at a middle school in an underserved, urban neighborhood of Chicago, I took my art group students to a forest preserve outside of the city for a day.
After we arrived, we walked through the trees to the shelter that would be our basecamp. This typically rambunctious group of kids began whispering to each other in awe of how quiet it was. One of my students slipped her hand in mine and said with shock, “I see why you told us not to litter. There’s no litter on the ground at all!”
We settled in and I gave them some free time to explore and get inspired. I wondered around watching them transform from serious kids with the weight of the world on their shoulders into, well, kids again. They were digging into the ground with sticks, staring spellbound by a frog, and playing by the creek exclaiming how it was clean enough to see fish!
At one point I heard some splashing and walked down the creek bed. Several of my students were grasping each others hands, forming a chain, so that they could get a piece of paper out of the water. They didn’t want anything to contaminate the creek!
Many of these same students behaved very differently in school. They got in trouble, they struggled to keep good grades, they missed school, etc. But on these precious few days, they played hard, listened well, helped each other, and created some amazing poems and artwork.
I believe that this is their true nature. I believe that getting out into nature helped them to reconnect with their natural state of being curious, caring, playful, creative, and collaborative. I also believe that this is the true nature of all of us.
Many of us have an inner world that is much like visiting the chaotic, dirty streets on the outskirts of a city. We haven’t been taking care of it because we haven’t been shown how and because we didn’t know it could be any different. We are so used to the noise in our heads that we forget how to find the quiet so we can listen.
If you are feeling unable to accomplish what you want to accomplish - if you are feeling depleted, overwhelmed, frustrated, and disheartened by your progress, the forest is calling you. Maybe the literal forest or any place where you can get in touch with who you really are again.
When you do that, then you can begin to ask yourself the best kinds of questions: What feels natural to me? How do I naturally want to do this? What naturally happens when I let go of the “shoulds” and find my playful, curious spirit? Where do I naturally take myself when I quiet the noise and hear my own inner voice and feel my deep caring?
This is when you learn the magical truth that all the answers you seek are in your nature. Return to it. Listen to it. Trust it. That’s also in your truest nature.
☆★ Creative Challenge ★☆ Get out in nature and reconnect with your true nature. What wisdom does it hold for you with the challenges you face?