I remember as a child, arguing with another kid at school. I insisted we were animals, more specifically mammals, the other child fought that we were people, and people aren’t animals. I don’t remember who that kid was, but perhaps they had more dignity than me, being convinced they weren’t an animal and all, but I had learned that mammals had hair, I had hair – rock solid evidence in my five year-old opinion.
I don’t remember who won the argument, one of us? Both of us? Who knows, but I do know that I’ve gone through life with the foundational belief, I am an animal. After all, I eat, breath and hibernate a little more than I would like. Still, occasions come up when people seem to disagree, or think it’s an odd, even insulting philosophy rather than fact.
What I’m circling around is fact as well as philosophy; people are animals, which makes us part of the ecosystem, which makes us an integral part of this planet. We are natural, no matter how much electric light, Wi-Fi and branding we throw at the situation, we belong in nature. We are here to care for this planet and immerse ourselves in its beauty and bounty.
Readers of The Villager largely live in an area that is home to wonderful natural areas, diverse ecosystems and an incredible menagerie of animal life. I implore you to enjoy it!
I want to welcome you, consider this your invitation to spend a good part of 2024 in the woods. Enjoying the beauty of nature, plunge yourself in the fresh air, share in the invigorating change of the seasons and soak up the striking vistas we are privileged to have easy access to. It’s where you belong, it’s where we all belong.
Humans have lived in harmony with nature before, for most of our evolutionary history, and we can again, but it won’t come unless we spend time with nature, visit and get to know ourselves in nature, embrace our inner animal. If there is a time this year when something is missing for you, it may be your personal connection to the wider world. Feeling blue? Share it with the blue sky. Feeling sentimental? Plan a picnic near the water. Feeling isolated? Delight in the company of birds fleeting from tree to tree. Nature is a balm for it all.
One of my all time favourite quotes is from Professor Brian Cox, a physicist and TV presenter I enjoy says, “We are the cosmos made conscious and life is the means by which the universe understands itself.” Perhaps if we can accept our place in the world, live more gently on this planet, with more curiosity and awe, we will learn to be gentler, more curious and awed by ourselves.
Courtney Baker is the Office and Acquisition Coordinator at The Couchiching Conservancy, protecting nature for future generations of all kinds of animals.
