Hello friends,
I arrived at “my” marsh this morning around 6:30. There were already some cars in the parking lot – there are always a few people on the boardwalk around sunrise on the weekends as that’s the best time to possibly catch a glimpse of the beavers, and the birds are at their most active. Within a couple of hours the trail is packed with runners, cyclists, and walkers, but at sunrise there’s a hush over the marsh that feels sacred.
When I’m nearly alone in this place, it is so clear to me how small each of us is in relation to the natural world. Each of us is but one creature among countless others. Our needs are no more important than that of the wood duck or the green heron. Our presence on the planet is equally brief. To me, this knowledge is such a comfort.
As the trail fills up with more humans throughout the morning, the balance shifts. I hear snippets of conversations as they pass by. The marsh is just a pleasant place for most of them to exercise or visit with friends. I can feel the clarity of dawn becoming muddled with human concerns, human priorities, human importance.
I know that when I am at work this week, with the only evidence of the natural world being the occasional plant in a cubicle, in a place where petty dramas and kingdom building rule the day, I will lose a bit of my grasp on the feeling I had this morning at dawn. Against my better judgment I will start believing that these human-created scenarios and priorities are somehow worth my time and emotional response. Even when I tell myself I don’t care, I will feel my body respond to these situations – the anxiety will rise within me, unbidden. It’s insidious. And I say this as a person who, in general, feels pretty okay about my job. I don’t hate it. I don’t dread it. It’s not work per se, it’s the human condition. The more we try to improve upon things, the more we remove ourselves from our true place in the nature world, the more we treat things as important that really are not important, the more stress we create for ourselves.
I have no sweeping conclusion. I can’t tie this up with a tidy, poetic prescription for living. I only know that the more time I spend in nature, the better I feel.
Have a gentle week. Be kind to yourselves.
Love,
Michelle xoxo