Remembering Our Nature

INTENSION: Connectedness

TOUCHSTONE:

Embrace Nature as a Wise Teacher and Loving Companion. Imagine the natural world is an outpouring of Divine love in creative self-expression. Look to the earth and all her beings as a way to discover something of the sacred. Observe and study the many lessons offered to you by the natural world. Nature is much more than metaphor. She moves within us; we are part of her realm.

What Have You Forgotten that You Would Like to Remember?

These days I feel drawn to the need to remember. In this journey of discovering how to become more fully alive, I get the feeling that I have forgotten some things that I once knew. Childhood for me, in many regards, was a time of freedom. I have a very good memory of my childhood, some close to me say a freakishly good memory. I can remember, almost feel, those days when I would wake up with a sense of freedom. Thankfully, I did not have parents who over-scheduled me. In fact, childhood for me was often about creating things to do. It was about being present to the moment and discovering what emerged.

Often these days I wonder what happened to that girl who knew how to approach life with a sense of presence and wonder toward what the day would bring. Sure, I am an adult now (and have been for quite some time), but isn’t there something about that feeling of freedom that can still be mine? Why can life feel so constricting now? Why do I too often feel like I’m in survival mode? How can I move from times of surviving to more times of thriving? How can I return to something I once knew, even if it was as a child?

What Does it Mean to Remember?

I find it interesting to break the word REMEMBER down into the parts RE + MEMBER. If broken down this way, “re,” which means again, and “member,” which means "body part or organ, an integral part of an animal body having a distinct function," [1] might be understood as recalling the parts of myself that are an integral part of who I am. As a child, I knew how to feel my way through my days, as well as sense my way through. It seemed natural to depend on my heart and gut, as well as my mind, as ways to navigate life. I seemed to move through life in a more natural way... more grounded in my animal being. I wonder, what happened to that? My “RE + MEMBERING” may require recalling those parts of myself (i.e., the heart and gut) that helped me move through life when I was young and my more natural self.

We live in a western culture that is obsessed with thinking. We are very identified with our thoughts. We believe that “I think therefore I am.” Yet, what about “I feel therefore I am,” or “I sense therefore I am?” What happened to those ways of knowing? Why am I so entangled with my thoughts about things? How is overthinking not serving me? Perhaps “RE+ MEMBERING” involves attending to the heart and gut, as well as the mind, as an essential way of being human.

Technology May Be A Beacon for Return

I believe that we are frightened by AI because we have forgotten what it means to be human. If we as humans are only our reason and logic and nothing more, no wonder so many people feel threatened. If human usefulness is grounded solely in the ability to think, I can understand the concern that technology will take over. After all, technology can gather information faster and with greater breadth than we can. Yet, if we are not only our thoughts or our knowledge, we humans have something essential to offer that moves beyond technology.

I am of the understanding the humans are much more than our thoughts. We are cognitive beings (i.e., thinking/head) who also have the ability to feel (i.e., emotions/heart) and sense (instincts/gut) our way through life. In addition to this, I believe that we are animated by a life force that we call spirit. I think humans need to be reminded of who we are. We need to reclaim our identities on a greater scale than simply the enlightenment teachings of logic and reason. Hence, with the technological revolution, it may be a good that our identities are being called into question. Perhaps technology will help us return to a more wholistic understanding of what it means to be human: beings who are able to think, feel, and sense.

Called to a New Kind of Remembrance

It seems that the time we are in is calling us to a new kind of remembrance. As the theologian and philosopher Soren Kierkegaard expressed in his teachings, perhaps we are returning to what we once knew, only this time with new eyes. It could be that we are called back to ways of knowing through our heart and gut, only this time with the more advanced understandings of the intellect. A gift of the present time could be to bring into balance the role and necessity of all three ways of knowing, mind, heart, and gut.

When I reflect upon the anxiety of our time, I wonder, how much of this is because we have failed to remember who we are. We have equated human value with knowledge, often disregarding the value of instinct and emotion. We have built systems solely on our abilities to think, without also incorporating the value of our abilities to feel and to sense. (Such is evident in the devaluing of the arts in our current cultural systems.)

I believe, as a species, we must remember our place within the family of living things. We must remember, as the Touchstone states, nature is much more than metaphor. She moves within us; we are part of her realm. It is time to look to nature for answers, learning from natural patterns and cycles. For example, nature teaches that there must be periods of growth, flourishing, decline, release, and rest, in order for there to be times of resurgence. Such is the cyclical way of nature. Such is our way. To ignore such comes at a tremendous cost.

For evidence of this cost in our culture, look to the lie of continuous growth and linear progress. This lie has caused harm through our forced agendas around continuous growth and their unrealistic expectations with regard to unsustainable outcomes. Our gut tells us this is wrong. We know it in the stress within our body—when we work without time for rest and renewal. Our heart tells us this is wrong. We know it in our longing for freedom—when we feel overwhelmed by the constant racing of our minds with regard to unattainable goals. The questions for us then become: Why don’t we listen to our bodies? Why don’t we listen to our hearts?

Remembering What I Once Knew

For me, I would like to remember what my ancestors knew, what I knew as a child…that I am more than my thinking AND that I am an animal being. I would like to remember to trust my heart and my gut, allowing myself to sense the world as my fellow animals do. If feelings are emerging around a person or situation, I should pay attention to that. If my gut tells me that something is not right, I should trust it. We, as human animals, have survived this long because of our ability to listen to our emotions and our instincts, and well as our intellectual ways of knowing.

We are living in a time when information can be overwhelming. Thoughts about life can often be confusing. Yet, we still have our heart and our gut. What do these say about the state of things? Are they calling my attention to other ways of moving through the world? How might I make space for my heart and my gut as I meet my days? What freedom might be gained by not defaulting to my head? What if now, as an adult, I can circle back around to the more natural way that I moved through life as a child? What if what I once knew… how to approach life through mind, heart, and gut… has not been lost, but can now be incorporated in new ways?

With love and gratitude,