In my childhood we spent many years growing with Nature.
We did this at that time due to necessity, as our parents did not have much in terms of finances.
My parents found the work that they could whilst we moved around.
We lived by rivers, by the ocean, in the bush.
We lived in a tent for a number of years, a thin barrier between us and the elements.
We had lived in a house and stayed with family in their homes.
But it was this time of tent living, this time of living with and off the land that switched on a special kind of intelligence.
See, we barely had inside time…our life consisted of moving with Nature, following the shade or the sun, working with the tides and adjusting according to the elements. Snakes, spiders, scorpions, bandicoot, dingoes, lizards, birds, crickets, bat’s, moths, butterflies, mosquito’s, fish, crocodiles, crabs and all the wild Nature invited us to pay attention.
In doing so, we learnt how to be with in a way that we all had a place, a harmonious place.
If we watched the skies, listened to the wind and felt into the tides and rhythm of the rivers, we could shift camp accordingly in relation to nature’s flow.
She showed us that all things are in motion, that life emerges through the decomposing.
She showed us that we can dig a trench when the rains were large and encourage the waters flow, yet we could not control the measure of rain to fall in any given moment.
We had to be present, responsive, relational.
In this, we never became stagnant, we had to move with.
We grew and shifted with the seasons of each landscape accordingly.
Being by the Ocean was not the same as being by the River….
We had to respect this and not expect life to be the same, we had to be present, responsive, relational.
As an Adult, I recognise the gifts granted me through my parents choice of living.
They revealed to me my lifetime subscription to the best story ever created, that of Nature’s Story.
They wrote me into it’s pages, this is a living story of which I continue to read, be informed by and contribute to.
