What’s your relationship with Nature like? If you’ve picked up this book, you’re probably interested in enhancing the human-nature relationship in your life. Like any of the other relationships in our lives, our relationship with nature takes time and care to nurture. As we feed our relationship with nature with loving attention, that loving attention will be reflected back to us with a growing sense of being grounded and present.

I might be taking a big leap here, but bear with me. Could it be that the profound environmental issues we are in the midst of – global warming, species extinction, habitat destruction, pollution – are all manifestations of our neglected relationship with nature on a human species level? Humans who care deeply about the people with whom we are in relationship would never cause those others intentional harm or neglect. So why do we treat nature as if it is this sort of limitless pool of resources just for our use and abuse?

It seems as though there are two ways of looking at human-nature interactions. The first is the one we typically ascribe to Indigenous peoples, which is to see the human species as just one more species in the web of all life, interconnected with all other species and the Earth, holding no particular role of leader or being in charge.

The second is that promoted by some others, including some religions, that teach that the Earth exists solely for the use and pleasure of humans, and has no inherent right to its own dominion and power.

When we think of ourselves as separate from nature and the Earth, we become mentally and spiritually disconnected from the outcome of our actions and attitudes. The natural world becomes a stage for the human drama and is utterly disregarded until things start to go very wrong.

I propose that, just as it is with our human relationships, it is our daily actions and attitudes that promote the health of our human-nature relationship.

This is a collection of practices that I have found helpful.

I hope you will too.

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