Nature Connections, Joy of Discovery, Leveling up for the Lost 60%

I read this headline in The Guardian recently:

Human connection to nature has declined 60% in 200 years, study finds

A powerful and telling headline as we head into what is probably the next major revolution with the sudden bloom of artificial intelligence on our horizon, or perhaps already here in ways we haven’t yet fully understood, and the unfolding climate crisis.

The hills above our new home in Recco, Italy

I’ve recently moved to Italy. Making this statement here now, I can feel the certainty despite all of the terror of big change and the UNcertainty that rides shotgun with all such BIG transformation. Some have asked if our move is because of what is happening right now in the United States. Our move is something we have contemplated for a long time. My husband, Vince, has dual citizenship having immigrated to the US upon completion of his US education. But it's true that the current political climate has influenced our decision, sped up our timeline, mainly for personal safety reasons (a story for a different day).

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind with Vince repatriating, trips to the Questura, the immigration agency, the US consulate, town hall, registering our marriage with the Italian government, and taking all the steps necessary to facilitate my immigration.  The town we are living in is on the Ligurian coast, which is to say on the Mediterranean Sea. It's not exactly urban but if you know this part of coastal Europe, each town can feel compressed with the more "wild" areas far above in the mountains.

Each morning, I sit with my coffee and I can see the large container ships and cruise ships as they cut their precise slice towards the port of Genova. Around them, tiny sails dot the hazy expanse, their purpose seemingly to simply catch the wind. I imagine them from my terraced yard soaked with the sun and the wind and the salt spray. They feel so free as they glide on the waves.

And so it is that we begin to feel our own desire for that feeling of freedom. The image inspires the imagination and the imagination invokes the feeling. I realized that in the cacophony of a new place, a new language, new routines, the stress of integrating, that I feel that longing. Perhaps it's always there under the surface and if I can just lay down the burden of distraction, I could live more fully from that place. I began to think about that headline, that lost 60%, my Celtic ancestry, and as a Druid how I might re-wild myself here in Italy, a land much closer to the druids than my home country.

That night I imagined for myself the creation of a small altar that would help to initiate and re-establish my connection to the natural world in this strange place. I imagined a journey to meet the ancestors and magical beings of this land. I asked my dreams for revelation. My Vermont altar and connection to the beings of my homeland seemed so far away. I told myself that each day for a week I would find one object to place on my altar: one day a rock or a sea shell, a feather, a leaf or a flower. Something special found in nature. The ear whisperers then began to start in about how urban the area within the town I am in felt compared to my native Vermont and how limited I was due to a winter knee injury and the subsequent knee reconstruction from which I am still recovering (see my post: Physical Injury And The Dream’s Response). Oh how these dark voices want to divert my life force towards the futility of it all, thought forms which serve no purpose in furthering the longings of the soul.

And so I awoke the next morning, the dreams lingering just beyond my recollection and yet with a sense of the promise of adventures yet discovered. I raised the taparella to a new day and the vista of the sea beyond our terrace and immediately spotted a large black object on the small terraced grassy area in front of our home. I went out and picked up a large shimmering black feather. The synchronicity leapt into my skin with a sensual wave of recognition. The universe had responded in that way where we can feel affirmed in our desires, in our want to lay down the burdens. I decided to take a walk along the narrow viottoli up towards the mountains and eventually found my way to un sentiero, a trail, which leads up into a park. I couldn’t go much further as my knee was beginning to feel the workout, but I looked down and to my amazement there lay a giant quill. As I picked up the perfectly formed quill, I again had that sense of affirmation, the sense of sacred in the natural world. This beautiful piece of art that a creature had so precisely formed, the colors, the length, the hollow tube, the sharp point, created for its unique purposes. The unique structures of nature stand out to the human eye if you allow yourself to see! Before the mind races into the symbolism of the quill, the porcupine, etc., there is simply the joy of discovery and the sensuality of synchronicity. And so begins a simple process of aligning myself back to my love of being in nature. The trails and beaches hold much human history too and I've found many pottery shards and a few tiny bottles which I add to my basket of treasures.

The Crested Porcupine, native to North Africa, was introduced to Italy at some point during the Roman Empire. The fossil records show this animal inhabited the Italian mainland during Pleistocene era, perhaps going extinct and then being inadvertently “re-wilded” by the Romans!

Try this practice as a simple life hack to level you up into your nature connection, curious and observant:

Write on a scrap of paper: I desire to find the lost 60%. Place this scrap on your altar or in a prominent place in your home (creating a temporary altar perhaps).

Each day for a week, take a moment to be in nature. Allow what wants to be discovered to come forward. It may be a gorgeous sight, a nostalgic smell, or something tangible that you might collect to place for a time on your altar. Journal on those less tangible discoveries. Perhaps add those notes to your temporary altar.

Keep track of your nightly dreams, even if it’s just a snippet, a flash or the feeling upon awakening. Hold with compassion any anxieties you feel. Be curious. Watch for those synchronicities.

A sense of discovery can bring great joy, even in hard times. It requires curiosity, perhaps breaking out of our routines…not-doing, trying new things…feeling our longing for those places of wildness and adventure that leap like a flame in our hearts. We have to first imagine it, breathing gently onto this flame. What would it be like to reclaim that lost 60% of our connection to nature?

A small altar with found objects from my daily wanders

Laura Smith-Riva is a certified Natural Dreamwork practitioner and Priestix of the Green Mountain Druid Order in Vermont. She works with dreamers from many parts of the globe and in her personal work is interested in the connection to the natural world through dreams and vision work and offers expressions of her journey using art, poetry and prose.