Looking for Hope in the Natural World
As it is officially spring in the Northern Hemisphere, I have been finding myself taking more walks around my neighborhood and relishing in all the color sprouted from the soil. This reflection has my mind in two directions: savoring the beauty in the world and gardening as a practice of hope.
There are a lot of reasons to feel hopeless, apathetic, nihilistic right now - from cost of living to war. A lot of us are struggling. Apathy and nihilism are reactions that make sense when we want to protect ourselves from the feelings of hopelessness, fear, and helplessness, as we experience and witness the horrors of the world around us. We can’t hold it all. That being said, apathy and nihilism help create the conditions for us to settle for the conditions we find abhorrent.
Observing the flowers and the trees, the vibrancy around us, reminds us that there is more to our world than what news and social media focus on - anger and fear, which holds our attention, while shrinking our worldview. I theme I keep coming back to in my recent posts is identifying the areas of life where there is beauty, connection, care, joy, etc. It still exists, even amongst the horrors. This doesn’t mean to only focus on the good, nor does it mean that looking at a flower will make you feel energized and hopeful. Instead, it serves as a reminder that there is life and beauty amongst the hard parts of life. It might just be worth spending some of our limited time on this planet seeing some of that, as well.
As for gardening, that is such a tangible example of hope. We plant a seed and care for the soil and try to create the conditions that nurture that seed to allow for growth. All of this, with certainty that not every seed we plant will germinate and not every germinated seed will thrive. And yet, we spend time and effort hoping that once again, after winter, the world will bloom. In the book, The Well-Gardened Mind, Sue Stuart-Smith noted, “Gardening is about setting life in motion, and seeds, like dead fragments, help us re-create the world anew.”* And I think we all need a little encouragement to re-create our world right now.
What seeds of hope do you want to tend to create a better world?
As always, take what is helpful and leave the rest. I hope you have the week you need.
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*I read this book a few years back and don’t have a physical copy, so I regretably cannot cite the page number. I found this quote on the book’s goodreads page.
Stuart-Smith, S. (2021). The well-gardened mind: the restorative power of nature. Scribner Publishing Group.
