Chats that begin abruptly, but go smoothly.
Shamelessly plagiarising a friend for your Substack.
It’s 8am, and the tree outside my house is glowing bright yellow-green in my favourite kind of way. I look at it for a while. Two parakeets amble about on the branches of the palm tree beside it. Hmm.
I pick up my phone to Whatsapp my friend, S, who I know likes nature walks, and who I also know is unperturbed by sudden random questions at 8am.
Me: What is it that draws you to nature walks?
S: Good question.
I find nature beautiful. Even places like swamps and marshes which many people are not a fan of. I guess similar to how you find beauty in the trees and parakeets outside your window, but on a walk it’s more immersive and multilayered and ever-changing.
I generally like being in the open and breathing fresh air.
I like looking for and observing different animals, taking pictures if I can.
I feel peaceful and grounded when I’m in natural environments. Or if I’m otherwise anxious, then I feel calmer.
Me: Good answer.
Btw, the question was in fact triggered when I was looking at the tree outside and two parakeets! Haha!
I think for me, I also like the fact that it is all “static” but not completely.
It’s the antidote to that feeling of modern life that’s embodied in screen time. I like that the tree is not entertaining me at all. It is just there and my eyes linger on it regardless.
S: Hahaha, I like it. As opposed to people making reels and such, where the only goal is to entertain and distract.
Me: It does something good to me. To my eyes, to my brain. To my heart also. Maybe it’s that grounding you speak of. The feeling that the tree is calmer and more rooted than I am, and the rest of life as I experience it. It’s like when you’re in a ship with a calm captain while the storm is going bonkers outside. You absorb the vibe.
S: Yeah! It’s calming, in a way which social media, or even a walk in an urban environment, almost never is.
Me: Yeah I think we are now newly hardwired to look at things only if they are entertaining. So it feels refreshing to override that sometimes.
S: Yeah.
Oh, also there are many little things which can attract your attention and which feel worth paying attention to. Like, apart from the Environment as a whole. A flower, a patch of moss, the way a spiderweb catches the light.
There are interesting little things in urban environments too, both manmade and natural. But on a nature walk I pay more attention.
Another thing is that on a nature walk, especially alone, there’s sometimes a sense of interaction, but without another person involved. Like what people call communing, I guess.
Me: What! With some other Presence? The spirit of the world?
S: Something like that, a connection with the web of life. Maybe interaction is putting it too strongly. But a sense of connection.
Me: Btw, I’m probably going to Substack this conversation verbatim. You can start speaking more flowery now.
S: Hahaha
Good thing I said all this without knowing!
Come for the nature walk this weekend! Put your money where your mouth is!
Me: Sigh. MUST I. I got enough from my tree.