It is common advice that one should get outdoors and enjoy fresh air for good health. I think of all the countless times I’ve gone outside to get my mind off things or take a break, walking through a park or area with lots of wild plant growth, and not even noticed what was going on in the natural world right outside my door.
This is because we are not raised in our public education system to have a connection with nature or to learn about the wildlife in our environment. We are conditioned from a young age to learn to complete tasks indoors (to prepare us to be complacent for a corporate job) and then to indulge ourselves in our allocated free time to more indoor activity, such as nightclubs, movies or fashion, obsessed with being cool and terrified of missing out on trends.
I’m quite sure that as young girls, most were like me and couldn’t wait to be outside, along a creek, in a meadow, picking flowers and plants, pretending to make useful stuff out of them. Those were our original inclinations that we get trained out of.
When the curiosity of nature revives itself within you, you realize you do not need to go far to keep yourself preoccupied. I was going to use the word ‘entertained’ instead of ‘preoccupied’ but I don’t think that fascination with and learning about the world is the same as trivial entertainment. Actually, you stop feeling like you need to be entertained more than the enjoyment of the company of those that are close to you.
Most people this day and age want so badly to travel and go to different clubs, restaurants and shops. I myself used to think that was the epitome of the “good life” and it was what I strove for. I still of course would take any opportunity to travel, but the difference now is that I do not feel restless being in one place, in my home country that I grew up believing was boring. In fact, I now have a fascination with the Canadian natural landscape and how the awesome change of seasons impacts all that is around us, offering us different things to see and find at different times.
The past week, I have begun familiarizing myself with what grows at this stage of the year, early summer. There is so much diversity of plants in such a small amount of space.
I probably wouldn’t have given any attention at all to red clovers from the time I was a teenager until about a year ago. I used to eat them when I was a child though. They’re all starting to pop up now.
If you’re in meadow or along a road and you look closely, you might find wild strawberries. I have found a ton of them.
Wild roses are blooming now. I believe they can be used to make herbal tea and that the petals are edible. I tried to capture the pure white spider on this one, but he got camera shy …
I could get lost for hours in a meadow.
Hope you’re enjoying the magic around you.
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