Are you into nature?
How compartmentalizing life into building blocks creates disconnect.
“This way of talking about our world, as if it’s something you can choose to be interested in, is the beginning of our disconnection.”
The world we imagine ourselves to be living in is made up of blocks. Every block has a specific purpose. This is how I think of compartmentalization. You learn at school, you sleep in your room, you play at the park, you work at the office, you make food in the kitchen, and you get medicine at the doctors. Each of our lives becomes a compilation of the handful of blocks that are most important to us individually.
But what impact does this compartmentalization of our world have on how we live? And how does turning nature into just another one of these blocks impact our relationship with the world, ourselves, and others?
I recently came across a reel on Instagram discussing this phenomenon. In the reel, the hero talked about what it means to be into nature “as if it is a weekend hobby” (@urfromere, 2023). The issue with this is that “this way of talking about our world, as if it’s something you can choose to be interested in, is the beginning of our disconnection” (@urfromere, 2023). We have turned nature into just another block when really nature is everything we need to sustain ourselves and more.
This video resonated with me but didn’t really shake up my core belief system. I had the privilege of growing up in nature, in my backyard making forts, frog-catching on camping trips, and playing in the snow. Growing up, my only block was nature – I played in it, learned in it, made friends in it, injured myself in it, and laughed in it. Anything my heart desired as a child was possible in nature.
But then things changed, and for a while, I viewed nature as just another block and one that I didn’t have a lot of time for. I went to university to learn, work to make money, home to sleep, and to the doctor when I was sick. Somewhere between being a kid and becoming an adult, I stopped spending time in nature because it wasn’t an important enough block in my life.
What changed? What allowed me to reconnect with nature was simply being able to spend time in nature again. Nature became a part of my life’s blocks once again, eventually becoming more than a block – it is now my motivator, my friend, my supporter, and my healer.
Disconnection from nature often isn’t a choice. The biggest hurdle for most people to connect with nature is a lack of access. As @jackiexson commented in response to the reel, “nature has become a novelty not because of how people perceive it but because the majority of people literally physically cannot access a healthy relationship with the environment.” (@jackiexson, 2023).
I spend a lot of time thinking about how to have a positive impact. Ever since I was little, all I ever wanted to do was save the world. I looked up to this cartoon character called EnviroGirl and went around turning off lights in my house so we used less electricity. I used to think school was a waste of time, not because I didn’t want to learn, but because I didn’t see how learning the Pythagorean theorem was going to stop the polar ice caps from melting or old-growth forests from getting chopped down or coral reefs from dying. I never lacked passion only the physical ability to do anything. At the time, my biggest challenge was figuring out how I was going to save the world.
It’s been more than a few years since I sat in my high school wondering how I was going to make a change and now I know my how. The way I want to make a difference, the way that makes me fulfilled and happy, is through fostering meaningful connections between people and nature. By helping people bring nature into their life and showing them that nature offers so much more than we give it credit for. By sharing that nature is so much more than just a block.
This brings me to my plug for Stewardship Pemberton and our latest strategic plan. Our vision is “a united community stewarding the natural world” and our hope is that in achieving our vision we can give people the chance to enjoy nature and that through that people will feel inclined to protect and love it. If people do not have the chance to get to know nature, they will never prioritize it as an important part of their life because “you don’t love what you don’t know and you’re more inclined to protect what you love.” (Johnson, 2015).
By Sierra Aston for Stewardship Pemberton Society
References
You’re from here (@urfromere). 2023. Instagram, May 15, 2023, https://www.instagram.com/p/CsRJ6CcoO-_/
