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| paradise valley in morocco |
First of all: What is nature?
The answer is not as easy as it seems at first. And actually the more you think about it, the less clear it seems. Nature is supposed to be the living environment, that was not formed by human culture. For some things that seems very clear. If you ask for example, is the landscape of Yosemite National Park nature? Yes. Are the Alps in Europe nature? Mostly yes. Are the forests in Germany nature? Hmmmmm. Historically? No. Few of the forests in Germany are actually originally formed by themselves. There used to be big old natural forests, before the Germans started to settle there and create farm land. They cleared most of the old forests. They reshaped most of the old riverbeds and replanted new forests with different kind of trees. They hunted a lot of animals and decreased most of the wild animal population in order to create fields, and to breed farm animals. So most of these relatively new forests and animals (like cows and pigs and chicken) are actually a product of culture. You won't run into a bear or a wolf in these new forests. You won't find a tearing rapid stream in these new riverbeds. It's all tamed.
Still, if we think about what we mean in our daily life with the word "nature", we see that we have lowered our standards a lot. In Berlin, if we seek nature, we go to a park. It's historically incorrect to call these parks and forests in and around Berlin "nature", but the grey concrete around us has made us desperate for some green.
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| gardens of the world in berlin |
I've once read an article about a social study where researchers found out, that the more green areas are accessible to inhabitants of a certain area, the healthier the inhabitants are psychologically. There are other studies that looking at green plants and leaves and flowers reduces stress, calms you down and uplifts your mood. Who needs these studies? We can totally feel that ourselves. Chilling in a garden for a few hours does wonders. Every time that I take a walk in the park I wonder: Why am I not doing this much more? It's so nice!
Nature comes in all colors. Green is the obvious one. But to look at the blue water of the Adriatic Sea in Croatia makes my heart bounce every time. I am totally addicted to that blue blue water. It looks really juicy and tasty and inviting somehow. And seawater is almost a spiritual thing, because it is the material that we are mostly made of and the essence that we came from. Our cells are these little water bubbles with salt and minerals, our tears we cry taste like the sea, the sweat that runs down our bodies reveals what is under our skin. Saltwater. Eating soup makes so much sense in this circle of saltwater.
The sea has a strong healing power. I experienced that many times already in my early childhood. As a baby I used to suffer from neurodermatitis and my mother was bathing me regularly in sea salt baths to heal it. It totally worked. It was gone before I started having a conscious memory. But what I do remember is getting stung by a wasp in summer in Croatia. My mom told me to cool it off in the sea. I walked into the water and when I came out again, there was merely something like a little mosquito bite left. No more pain, no itching. A few years later my brother and me got into climbing the cliffs and rocks next to the sea and we got so bold and jaunty that I slipped into a gap between two rocks with sharp edges leaving a deep cut in my leg. I went to the water with it and within a few days only the white new skin was a like a trace on my brown legs.
The oceans of our planet are a powerful manifestation of nature. Recently going to Morocco a lot made me realize the difference between the gentle crystal and still blue of the Adria and the turbulent, wild and impermeably green waves of the Atlantic Ocean. Hearing the sound of the waves at night matches my breath and it's one of the rare sounds that makes me fall asleep instead of keeping me awake. When I started surfing I was totally clenched by how strong the ocean is. On our first day we had a surf teacher telling us to walk into the waves in a certain way to use the current in our favor. I followed him and thought I was doing something wrong cause I felt it was impossible to walk further without drowning. Over the loud noise of the masses of water falling down the waves I screamed to our teacher that I'm gonna go back out of the water and try again somewhere better. He shook his head and yelled that everywhere else would be much harder. I couldn't believe it but followed him freaking out inside but trying to stay cool on the outside. It was a day of the battle: Me against the waves. I lost in every single move that I tried, feeling my body being a ridiculously small snippet in these huge and powerful waves and currents washing me here and there. I swallowed a lot of water, got my limps and my body pulled and twisted in every direction and was fighting to keep control over this surfboard that was attached to me. It was so much fun! I know it sounds horrible, but it was fun. It kept me busy, I had a goal (to ride one of these stubborn waves) and I was surrounded by the essence of my own being. And in the end of the day I was really tired and felt like every pore of my body was washed so clean and my eyes were still watery from the salt and water still dripping out of my nose when I was already showered and sitting at the dinner table.
Nature means a lot to me personally. And I think it should to everyone. This might be dogmatic but it is the dogma that I grew up with. Our mom was teaching us from early childhood on that the environment is something to be saved because it is the basis that we live on. As children we had little Greenpeace stickers on all of our school notebooks and we knew that it was better to go everywhere by bike and to not buy things that are packed in too much plastic and that some animals and plants would become rare and in the end be extinct species. I'm glad we grew up with this consciousness, because now I am a person who highly appreciates nature and tries to live in a peaceful symbiotic relationship with it, instead of abusing and destroying it.
The happiness-factor of nature is almost inexpressible in words. So I'll just let these videos speak for me:
pure happiness
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