What is our relationship with nature (Part II)
Today, I participated in a workshop by Forest School Singapore (FSS) to learn how to make our own fire without gas or liquid fuel, with just the material of the land (even when it’s raining) and how to keep the fire going. The secret is to keep trying and lots of magnesium :P
What I enjoy most, whether at a community garden or a forest school, is getting to know the people. What I felt with each of the FSS coaches that I’ve interacted with so far is their sense of grounding, how attentive, resourceful, and calm they are in facing any situations that may occur in the forest. This, I imagine, comes from leading groups of more than 10 children, from as young as three, in a child-led program to learn and discover in nature. A child-led approach means the coaches are there to hold the space but the children decides what to do.
For me, I was always thinking about my own relationship with nature, i.e. how I feel when I’m in nature because of all that nature provides to me, and how to enable more people to experience that. I remember my weekly walks in Washington D.C. through the Soapstone Valley trail where I felt like a different person everytime I walked out of the forest, compared to when I first walked in. Today, I felt like I walked in with a group of people, each of us with our own baggage, stories and stress, and we all walked out a whole lot lighter. This experience taught me that the reciprocity is not just between Mother Nature and I but it is also between each of us — as we learn and interact with nature, we share and exchange knowledge, stories, and inspiration, which deepens all of our relationship with nature and our ability to act upon it.
It reminds me of the mycelium network. Tree roots are connected to each other through these incredibly tiny threads called mycelium from fungi. This allows the tree to send and receive water, nitrogen, carbon, and other minerals with the surrounding trees. In exchange, the fungi receives sugar from the trees. This forms a strong symbiotic relationship. Humans too have a symbiotic relationship with nature but somehow we have turned into some sort of invasive, parasitic species. But today reminded me that environmentalism is very much a local act, and for the first time in a long while, I felt rather hopeful as I was walking out of the forest, from being a part of this local “mycelium network”.
