Peter M. Rojcewicz, PhD January 15, 2015
Too often in our work, as in our life, we suffer overwhelm, confusion, or hurt. During such times, we can find fortification of our body-mind-spirit by wandering in the woods, listening to a soundscape of insects and birds, or gazing at the immense night sky. By giving ourselves over to the magnitude of nature, we distance ourselves from our cares and realize something of our deeper selves.
Rilke knew, “If only we could let ourselves be dominated as things do by some immense storm, we would become strong…” Similarly, Gerard G. May in The Wisdom of Wilderness understands that learning in life and on the job means being willing to be cope-less. This doesn’t mean that we surrender our wits, or retreat into a desperate quietism. It means, instead, that we be present to life without artificially forcing issues into resolution. It means that to achieve a healthy relationship with our or another’s nature, we dim the ego’s glare of demands, enter the softer light of not-knowing, and attend creatively to what arises from the depths of being.
This inner harmony via education by nature is fundamentally a capacity for freedom and love. In this way, nature is a curriculum for learning survival skills and values. Walking among towering sequoias or along a shoreline of the majestic sea, we live more fully present to life, moving our awareness past emotional defenses, mechanized thinking, or conditioned behavior and closer to wellsprings of creative possibility.
Knowledge by presence means we are available to the transformational energies of life, embracing non-defensive openness, flexibility of thought, wonder, and a willingness to be changed by self-inquiry. We achieve healing from powerful entrainment, as our mental, physiological, and spiritual pulses synchronize with nature’s rhythms to create a new and sustainable peace within us. The practice of this wholeness constitutes a sacredness, a seeking of spirit profanely, regarding earth with respect.