University students and mentors reconnect with nature

Compassthe University's Counseling and Wellness Unit, in partnership with the Core Curriculum Institute, held the fourth and final session of Re-connect, a series aimed at students and mentors. Last Wednesday, March 12, Deliacir "Peca" Macher presented the fourth session "Connecting with nature", which was developed by Jordi Puig i Baguer, from the Biodiversity and Environment Institute of the University of Navarra.

In a world where speed devours us and technology distracts us, the human being is faced with a paradox: he seeks the natural, but at the same time feels a deep uprooting with the earth. We lose ourselves, we dissolve. Disconnection with the environment affects our ability to relate, to think and to know ourselves. In this context, the speaker proposed a way to recover that essential link between the human and the natural, discovering the value of both.

The central message of the meeting revolved around value. The idea is to propose an attentive look at nature as an exercise to think and live better, to understand the natural environment as a school of humanity, and the human body as a presence of the natural in me, which challenges me. The contemplation of the natural environment not only financial aid to make better decisions and to recover staff balance, but also stimulates creativity. It was emphasized that rootedness is fundamental: what is important are the roots, the invisible, that which nourishes and sustains us. It is important to realize that we too are rooted.

Nature nurtures us more with this value than with profit. We have been taught to measure value in terms of the profit we make, but true value is a mystery that challenges, arrests and transforms us.

His call to respect him does us good. If I respect him, I improve as a person, with the world. Courage is that fragility that awakens my wonder, makes me question myself: I am not the center. It's like thinking about bad weather. Does it exist? That concept is only held by someone who believes he is the center of the universe. It is understood with misfortunes or catastrophes... but not because it rains or it is cold.

As Mikel Laboa's song Txoria Txori expressed, love and nature must be left to be, not possessed: "If I had clipped its wings, it would have been mine. But that way, it would not have been a bird". Gabriel García Márquez was quoted: "Neither love is a cage, nor freedom is being alone. Love is the freedom to fly accompanied. It is letting be without possessing".

To connect with nature it is essential to live in the present. The session explored different ways of being in the here and now: feeling the breeze, listening to the birds, observing the leaves of a beech tree, walking in the bush.

It is essential to live in the present, but in a real present, in front of values that are real and concrete, like a few simple beech leaves. There are no two leaves alike in the universe, beech leaves with all their compositional beauty. 

The importance of contemplation as a gateway to wonder was also discussed. In this sense, the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, which evoke calm, mystery and smallness in the face of the immensity of the natural world, were analyzed. As Thoreau said, "How is he who has to use his knowledge to remember his ignorance well - as his growth requires?"

The mystery claims us. It calls us. Nature tells us so. So does human frailty. We have to respond, humanity responds, like the volunteers in Valencia. We must understand this call and respond to it, listening first. Mention was made of the work of agronomist Toni Raynaud in Niger, who, without planting new trees, managed to restore five million hectares of forest through natural regeneration techniques. This example reflects how nature can transform us if we care for it with humility and gratitude.

This contemplation reveals to us the greatest value of what we contemplate: the power to transform us. A transformation of the heart. We are first what we have received. So much. So much. Meals, care... family, knowledge... everything. I am a being made of ecological, human solidarity. 

Hug a tree. Yes. Beauty offers more than possession or enjoyment. It offers communion. So that life is... caring. That is what it is to be human. To care, being cared for.