Surrounded by large buildings, elaborate infrastructure, and intricate technology, it can be easy to feel disconnected from nature. And we might be emotionally or intellectually disconnected. But we can’t ever really be physically disconnected from it.
Part of the reason is that we can’t separate from our own bodies, and those bodies are teeming with nature. Four humans in a high-tech capsule on the far side of the moon are still surrounded by life and utterly infused with it.
They need only look down at their own hands.
Every muscle, bone, and cell bears the traces of 3.8 billion years of development of life on Earth. The number of species of microbes present in and on their bodies alone would dwarf the named species in a zoo or local park.
Even when we’re designing space capsules and cities and energy-devouring data centers, we are part of nature, and in a meaningful way, so are those things we fashion. They are made from materials we find, alter, and assemble into structures we find useful. Just like beavers do with their dams, birds with their nests, and termites with their cemented mounds.
There are differences of scale and impact of course, but the truth that we are all still part of nature’s one grand story remains.
So as humans living in a significantly human-altered environment, it’s important that we get over that feeling of disconnection.
There are many ways to reconnect. You can get out into an area dominated by largely unaltered landscapes. You can get some exercise. Meditate. Eat mindfully. Take a walk and notice the little things. Build something, make something. Or get outside and do nothing. Try lots of them. And once you feel reconnected, strengthen that connection regularly.
We can never truly be disconnected from nature. So when you start to feel disconnected, just take a look around. Notice the connections. Seek them out and reflect on them. And then, following life’s lead, build another connection. Help someone else around you to have that same invigorating, inspiring, consoling experience of seeing and feeling our unbreakable oneness with all of the living world.
Andrew Howley is Chief Editor at the Biomimicry Institute, where he curates stories of life’s innovations and adaptations. A science communicator with 11 years at the National Geographic Society, he has also served as Communications Director for Adventure Scientists, hosted a podcast on human origins, and holds a degree in anthropology from the College of William & Mary. Learn more about Andrew, and the rest of the team, here.
