How to Build a Closer Connection With the Living World Around You
From The Observatory
In How to Build a Closer Connection With the Living World Around You, writer and educator Bridget A. Lyons explores how simple, mindful activities can deepen our relationship with nature and improve our well-being. She begins with a personal story about seeing a monarch butterfly in Idaho, realizing that both she and the insect share a migratory path between Idaho and California. This small moment of connection, she says, illustrates how observing and appreciating other living beings can brighten our days and remind us that we are part of a larger web of life.
Research supports what many people already feel: spending time in nature helps our minds and bodies. It can lower stress, sharpen focus, and even make us more empathetic toward others. Lyons argues that this empathy must extend beyond humans to include the countless species whose survival is threatened by habitat loss and climate change.
She offers six easy ways anyone can practice connecting with nature, no matter where they live. These include making a “handmade camera” with your fingers to focus attention on small details, sketching a plant or animal to notice its shapes and textures, and writing an umwelt haiku—a short poem imagining how another creature experiences the world. Other activities include listening closely to outdoor sounds, mimicking how animals move, and collecting fun “factoids” about different species.
Lyons believes that paying attention to other-than-human life fosters gratitude and empathy, which in turn inspire us to make choices that help the planet. Quoting Robin Wall Kimmerer, she reminds readers that some Indigenous languages use the same words to address nature as family. Lyons invites us to recover that sense of kinship by simply stepping outside, noticing who shares our world, and beginning a conversation with life itself.
Read the full article “How to Build a Closer Connection With the Living World Around You” by Bridget A. Lyons
🔭 This summary was human-edited with AI-assist.
