Over the summer I repeatedly heard an advertisement on the radio describing a bottled water as being mouth-watering water. It seemed not only redundant yet also a bit of a sales-y stretch.
Over the weekend, I read an article that described the benefits of spending time in nature as a Nature Pill. Mouth-watering water, okay. But take a Nature Pill? Now, we’ve gone too far. When I mentioned this, three out of three friends said, “What’s the big deal?”
And that my friends is the problem. It isn’t a big deal, but more like death by a thousand paper cuts. You see, the English language is very good at turning almost anything that isn’t human into an it. Other languages are much better at granting animacy to rocks, trees, animals, apples, days of the week.
In English, Saturday is an it. In Native American languages, Saturday is the quality of being a Saturday, which makes sense because Saturday has very different qualities than Monday.
Similarly, an apple isn’t an it. An apple comes with the quality of being an apple. An apple is alive with the deliciousness of being that specific apple.
When we over-market water – a necessity for and of life, we lose the connection to the essential nature of what water means in both our very being and our world.
When we “take a Nature Pill,” we compare and reduce nature to a pharmaceutically constructed it.
Yet Nature is far from an it. Nature is alive with ecosystems, interdependences of give and take. Nature is full of wonderful gifts that feed humans and other species. Nature generously gives to humans plants with healing properties. Nature invites us to a dance of reciprocity and balance.
The lack of joining into reciprocity and balance in human life is at the core of depression, anxiety, and aching loneliness – all mental health conditions that are exponentially exploding in our country.
So, what’s the big deal? It’s a million small little deals that start with our daily language.
Pay attention to when your language is nudging toward the negative and complaining.
Listen to how often that is the shared language.
Reflect upon a better narrative, and how you can share it. It matters.
That better, more positive narrative. It matters for your mental health, and for the health of our planet. It matters when we see our daily experiences of life as an amazing gift.
Since fall is a beautiful time of transition to cooler days, changing light, and deep autumnal colors in the trees, fall is a beautiful time for reflection.
Here’s a quote for reflection from Thomas Berry, who says “we must say of the universe that it is a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects.”
What are the many ways in which your world is filled with opportunities for communing and connecting? Can you look at every day experiences and find qualities of being that are available to delight you? Are there opportunities for joy that are available to you when you see a communion of subjects instead of a collection of objects?
You may want to head out into nature while you take time to reflect. Specifically, 20 – 30 minutes a day has shown to reduce anxiety, depression, sadness, and feelings of isolation, and increase a sense of both confidence and connection.
Pills live on a shelf.
Nature lives in our hearts and supports our well-being.
Nature calls to us to live with balance and bounty. That’s a call we can gladly answer!