Seattle neighborhoods are full of wildlife and wild things. There’s room for all of us outside, and there are as many different ways to enjoy nature as there are people. You are a part of nature. You belong.
Take time to experience the nature of your neighborhood
- Move slowly and notice the life around you. The slower you go, the more you’ll see.
- How many shades of green can you count?
- Look until something surprises you.
- What might you find on the underside of a leaf or in a crack of a tree’s bark?
Close your eyes and try “staring” with your ears
- Can you disentangle the hum of bees from the hum of traffic?
- Don’t worry about who’s who. You don’t need to know anything about a house finch to be cheered by its bubbly song.
- Don’t forget to breathe—and to smell.
- Crush a leaf and hold it to your nose. Does it remind you of cucumber? Of citrus? Of old fish? You won’t know till you try.
Pay attention to patterns
- There’s something wonderful to look forward to each season: the timing of blooms, the migration of birds, the emergence of bees, the fall of leaves.
- Remember: we all sprang from the same source; over the long history of evolution, some of us became trees, or birds, or mushrooms. It can sometimes be hard to see the family resemblance, but it’s there, in our DNA.
Make spending time with nature part of your routine
Humans tend to develop relationships with those whom they encounter often. Social psychologists call this the “propinquity effect,” observing that frequent interactions with people in places like work or schools help from close bonds. While psychologists use propinquity to explain relationship development between humans, the same can apply for relationships between humans and nature—between you and a park, or between me and a street tree, for example.
While the relationship might be somewhat unidirectional with your park or my tree, the bond is still very real, and it develops and grows over time and with frequent interactions. As your bond grows with your park of tree, so will your care about its future.
With care, we can be hopeful. The future is uncertain, and the challenges we face from climate change, biodiversity loss, racism, and injustice are daunting. But doom paralyzes. Hope mobilizes.
Let your care become hope, and let your hope become action.
