Naturehood

This week I had the pleasure of attending a Bat Mitvah (coming of age) ceremony, which took place in a synagogue. During the service we were told that the date fell within the celebrations of Sukkot, a harvest festival in the Jewish calendar. We were invited to take part in the Kiddush meal after the service which was to take place partly in the sukkah, a tent-like structure that had been erected in the synagogue's outdoor space. The congregation were very welcoming to the friends of the Bat Mitvah girl and as we talked, they told us more about the meaning of Sukkot and the significance of the outdoor tent. During the seven days of the Sukkot festival, meals are taken outside in the specially constructed hut or booth. Sukkot is also known as the "Feast of Booths". Although the booths have walls, these are temporary dwelling and it is the roof that is particularly significant, made from plant material that is specifically no longer connected to the earth and open enough to see the sky. In the words of the woman explaining it to me "so we can be more connected to nature". Obviously this piqued my interest, especially on seeing the collages made by the very young Sunday schoolers who had drawn the walls of the huts and then decorated the roofs with laurel leaves and grasses; arts and crafts are also a great way to connect with nature! I was told that as well as eating meals in these huts, some people even sleep in them, able to see the stars through the leafy roofs.

I've been doing a bit of reading on the subject since then, and there seems to be some disagreement as to whether this is a purely nature connection festival, although you can't really argue with the idea that any harvest festival is at one level about nature connection. As one post on the subject says "It is a time for us to be connected to nature not only through the bounty of our fields but also through sleeping among the stars."

Intrigued about how both Judaism and Christianity relate to the natural world, I turned to a search engine. (Not Google but Ecosia - worth the change for their slightly more ethical credentials I believe; here's how.) Is Judaism a nature based religion? Wikipedia seems to think so stating that Judaism and Environmentalism intersect on many levels. There is apparently biblical protection for fruit trees and there is a restriction on cruelty to animals. I tried again with a similar question. Is Christianity a nature based religion? On this wikipedia seemed more keen to guide me to religion venerating earth and nature. Then an article by Margaret Atwood caught my eye: how did Christianity come unglued from nature? With the subtitle "Imagine if humans could regain the knowledge that everything -- everything -- comes from the earth." Well indeed. Even us! One of my guilty secrets is listening to a playlist of hymns when I go for a run; they may not be theologically sound, but they are often beautiful poetry and more often than not have some mention of nature. Whilst Monty Python had a point; if God created the earth and everything in it, then He's not just responsible for the bright and the beautiful but also the dull and the ugly and even "the little wasp that stings". Whilst wasps tend to get a bit of a bad rap, like all creatures they have a place and a purpose, helping with pollination and acting as pest control. Also while we say "wasps" like they're just one thing, there are over 9,000 species of wasp in the UK all doing their waspy thing, which, to note, is NOT stinging in most cases! Margaret Atwood concludes that it's very recently that Christian religion turned away from nature, particularly in the west, as scientific discoveries developed and overtook earlier simpler explanations. Many other religions, often in the east, never broke that bond, for example Shinto in Japan or Buddhism which retain links to the natural world. As mentioned on many occasions in previous blogs, Britain is one of the least nature connected countries, so we need all institutions, not just religious ones, to look towards regaining the links between humans and nature. There are organisations such as Eco-Congregations and Eco-Judaism to support religion with making environmental responsibility part of the religious identity. How do we do that with other institutions even on a small scale?

The Nature Connected Organisations Handbook can help with this, giving ideas that can unite staff wellbeing and sustainability agendas. From a greener workplace to nature connection activities, even giving Nature a seat on the board - there are ideas at every level. Perhaps you can derail the occasional meeting in your organisation with squirrel chat, as I accidentally achieved yesterday when we were meant to be talking about something else altogether. Even the person whose montbretia bulbs were being ravaged by pesky squirrels, didn't seem to resent their presence too much, mainly wishing they'd leave the tulip bulbs alone. I recently saw their current seasonally motivated behaviour described as "unhinged squirrel energy" with an acknowledgement that humans are currently carrying this sort of energy also, with the chaos of world events combined with the feeling of wanting to get everything done before the onset of winter. Talking of which, the concept of wintering seems to be everywhere these days. Katherine May's book Wintering is celebrating its fifth birthday, but the book that really changed my attitude to the season is How to Winter by my favourite winter specialist Kari Leibowitz. I've recommended it to countless friends since, with some success. Kari also writes a seasonal newsletter which I hope will be returning after the clocks change at the end of the month. Just as I was thinking about breaking out How to Winter to get myself in the mood, I was pointed in the direction of Winter Well on Radio 4. I chuckled a bit when one of the key contributors turned out to be none other than Kari Leibowitz. I think they're going to be a great source of new ideas.  I've only listened to one episode so far and came away with the idea of using a frame to look at a portion of the sky. We've used frames in our ParkBathe sessions to encourage people to focus in on particular things, but we're usually looking down rather than up. Trying it with the sky, particularly on a grey day can help us appreciate that it's not just a dreich grey sky but rather many many different shades. I can't wait to learn some more new tricks!

Need a bit more encouragement to get outside and noticing nature? Our friends at Go Jauntly have a solution for you in the form of their Naturehood Challenge. Working in partnership with the National Trust, this challenge encourages you to discover something new in nature in your local area. There are 25 nature based prompts with a virtual badge to achieve each time you partake in one of the activities. From stroking some moss to watching the clouds, each prompt has links to some ideas on how to go about each activity, taken from their guide 50 things to do before you're 11 3/4, but it definitely doesn't matter if you're older than that! I've already spotted some fantastic fungi and look forward to achieving another badge when I take a friend on a nature adventure later today! Naturehood was launched after the first episode of a new BBC nature series - Hamza's Hidden Wild Isles with the aim of encouraging people to step outside and reconnect with the natural world on their doorstep. There's more info about the Wild Senses campaign on the National Trust website.

The only disappointment for me in the Naturehood Challenge so far was that I didn't get any credit for successfully chasing a rainbow, on a frustrating autumn day where it was definitely sunny and rainy at the same time, but the rainbow was reluctant to appear. As you can see from the picture above, I captured it in the end and it was so worth it.