I know it is time to unplug when the pull of the outside is stronger than my motivation to do anything else. However, I believe that unplugging should occur every day at the same time as a routine. A way of winding down after a very long day at work, or home, or just a long-ass day. We need not have a reason to immerse ourselves in nature. It should be as routine as a shower. Think of it as a nature shower. Showering oneself in the bounties of the natural world. The sounds, smells, sights, and yes – even the tastes of the outside world.
The fruits of the Nature-Tree are innumerable: be it the flow of the wind regulating your mental flow or the chirping of cicadas in the early morning sunrise pacing with your breathing as you draw in a deep meditative breath. The outdoors is not a place to escape to once in a while – it is a place that should become a permanent place in your life and routine.
I remember as a kid, I barely spent any time indoors. I spent most of the waking hours in our few-acre-woods with my two younger cousins. We would spend hours playing various make-believe games from: house to school and war to cowboys. It was a different scene everyday with the woods transforming around us like the set of a movie – changing as we moved along in our fictional storyline.
“Get the horses,” I might yell.
“Watch out for the enemies, and keep your bow up – they are gonna get us!”
or, “You have 90 chapters of homework and 7 worksheets due in ten minutes.”
It was a new place every day, a new world. It was what kept my little mind inquisitive and imaginative. Being outside shaped my soul and my spirituality. I am very much a follower of nature-worship because without the Earth – there would be no humanity. Without trees, no oxygen. Without water, no life. I take time every day to appreciate the beauty of the world around me both macroscopic and microscopic.
Appreciate the little beauty, the hidden beauty, the beauty of life.
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