What can nature teach us about virtue?
“People must feel that the natural world is important and valuable and beautiful and wonderful and an amazement and a pleasure.”
As a child, I spent a lot of time outdoors, mostly with my dad. My dad is a massive fan of nature, particularly birds. We would while away Sundays down at the river Dodder waiting for a Kingfisher who may or may not turn up. My memories of those outings are rustling crisp packets, cheese “sangiches”, binoculars pressed up to my eyes, the feel and smell of grass, bees buzzing, birds singing and my dad whispering things like “Sshh!” and “Just wait another little while”.
Unbeknownst to me, I was learning some important lessons in life. I was learning how to keep still. To this day, I am comfortable in my own company with my own thoughts. I don’t think it has come naturally to me as I sometimes fall off the wagon and go a bit manic with cleaning and what not, so I strongly believe that it is a skill that I have learned. Like all virtues or qualities, I believe stillness can be learned, practised and improved throughout your life. Dad and I could spend hours on those days just sitting. Just being. We couldn’t really talk as it would disturb the birds. So we sat. It gave me the opportunity to look and listen for a minute and discover what was around me. It sometimes made me feel insignificant. Not in a negative way.
Another important lesson I was learning was how to be patient. Now, anyone who knows me will start laughing at this point because I have very little patience. But I often say to myself “If I hadn’t spent all that time sitting by the river waiting for the Kingfisher, I would have absolutely zero patience now!”. The thing about nature is you can’t control it, be it on a large or small scale. My experiences as a child were on a small scale, but I discovered very quickly that no amount of tutting and sighing and complaining was going to bring that Kingfisher to us any faster.
When he did arrive, boy, was it worth the wait. Every time. And I must have seen him a thousand times.
I really believe that nature has a way of teaching us things. Not only that, but nature can be used as a tool to improve your mood. A Kingfisher is, in my opinion, one of the more delightful treats of nature, but there are so many feasts for the eyes, heart and head in the trees, the mountains, the sea, even in your own back garden. I think it’s so important we take a little time out every now and then to appreciate nature and what it does for us.
