Have you ever noticed how our senses start shifting more to subtleties when we‘re out in nature for a while?

From sights (the ranges of different colours, the textures of soil and bark, the plays of light, a bird) to sounds (rainfall, rustling leaves, the crackling of branches – or snow, mud, or sand – under your feet) to scents (fall leaves, beech nuts, mushrooms, fresh grass and nettles early in the year) to touch (rocks on the path, raindrops on your head, grass or brambles brushing your leg, a spider web in your face :)) to the more subtle senses of (inner and outer) balance, changes in your (environmental and body) temperature, your spatial awareness, the velocity of movement, and the unique blends of experiences that mix all of these together while you, yourself are in motion, too.

Our capacity for consciousness, our sense of connection (to ourselves, to nature and others) and our ability to be ‘rooted’ and aware of our inner and outer world seems to broaden and deepen the longer we stay out and about.

We need this. We need it dearly.

We should use it to re-sharpen our senses, to be able to (re)see the barrage of manufactured ‘input’ that is pressed upon us daily from all sides for exactly what it is.

Too loud. Too much. Not real.