If we turn our backs

Today I had a conversation with a dear friend that made me feel really sad.  I could feel the sadness in my friend, a kind of heavy soul weariness with some very difficult things in his life.  The most distressing being that in his neighbourhood which was for so long so very close to nature, nature is now being over-run by buildings and constructions of other projects including a light rail that involves the removal of well over 20 giant fig trees.

My friend has been experiencing headaches and he has noticed that over the past few weeks the native fauna have migrated to his backyard which is now one of the only backyard in the suburb with any trees still standing.  He has endured the sound of chainsaws decimating the beautiful trees, giant sentinels that have stood in place for over a hundred years, now obliterated by stupid, crazy, shut down humans.

Hearing this made me feel so angry.  Earlier today I was listening to a programme in which people were speaking about the commercialisation of our Australian National Parks.  One man interviewed was the former Senator and Green Party Leader and Founder, Bob Brown.  A native of the island state of Tasmania which is one of this earth’s few remaining wilderness places, Bob campaigned many years ago against the damming of the Franklin, a huge river that runs through the Tasmanian wilderness.  He has been a wilderness advocate and nature lover for well over 50 years.

Today Bob was speaking of how we humans come from nature, we are part of nature.  When we turn our backs on our primal roots we find ourselves in profound peril, our physical, emotional and mental natures suffer from the severing of connection with that which is our ground and sustains our life and living.

Last week I had a painful day undergoing interviews in the lead up to my radiology treatment for Breast Cancer. During the interview a lot of grief and shock came up for me, as the prospect of chemotherapy was canvassed (an option I had already been informed was not required for my particular case).  The radiographer seemed shocked by my grief reaction.  I came away from the appointment feeling like I had visited an alien universe where clinicians without any kind of feeling were looking at me like some kind of strange species that they did not understand.

There was no nurturing touch, no comfort, only a lot of questions which clearly showed little understanding of what I was going through.  My nature had not been understood and I felt as though I had just been dropped in an icy ocean.  At the end of the interview all I longed for was the healing touch of sunshine on my skin, the feel of my puppy’s soft fur, the comfort of being home surrounded by wood and fibre and cosiness after the harsh sterile atmosphere of the New Cancer Centre.  I left the building crying and feeling all the terrible splittings and traumas of my life which severed me from love, connection and wild nature.

Contemplating my experience on Wednesday and considering what my friend is going through in seeing his environment decimated today I am feeling so sad in contemplating what will happen to us as a species if we continue to turn our backs on nature.

If we must and can it will be necessary for us to live where we can be in touch with nature in life and in our souls, for to live divorced from nature will surely be for us a source of grief whether consciously or unconsciously felt.

The deepest wound we suffer as children and the wound that seems to be making humans forget about the value of nature is not being fully received in our essential being while growing up.  As we move further away from our own natures, our relationship with nature around us suffers.  In nature we are open on a cellular level if we are not emotionally shut down by the trauma of being separated from who we truly are and what we truly feel.  If we continue to separate ourselves from nature how will we survive?  The earth must be grieving for us so deeply, trying to show us we need to wake the hell up.