NATURE’S PATTERNS
SPIRALS OF CONNECTION
A pamphlet about the patterns of nature that guide our perception and our understanding of the world we live in.
It starts with the following prologue:
The patterns of nature are all around us, and we have the ability to perceive and understand these patterns because we are a part of nature. Or we should be able to.
But our world has been greatly modified by our technology and the power and control it gives us. The world many of us live in is, thus, a very constructed and artificial one, of an urban-industrial world. The world we live in and learn about has, then, a manufactured character where the rules (about knowledge and behaviour) are set by cultural conventions and beliefs
Central to this constructed world of humanity are beliefs about progress and growth, human-centred growth of material consumption and comfort, based on attitudes of exploitation and individual self-seeking. ‘Nature is outside of us, and there to provide resources and services for us.
This presents us with a dilemma if we want to understand the ways of nature, of the world we do, in fact, live in. To appreciate and understand the patterns and processes of nature we have to have an intimate engagement and awareness of the world around us, as a fully connected being of that world. To be fully connected and intimately engaged, however, we have to appreciate and understand the patterns and processes of life on Earth, the place we inhabit.
Humanity has, though, studied and reflected on its place, for a long time, and there are guides and aids that can assist us in re-connecting and really engaging with the world we share with so many life forms, which are all inter-related in very complex and diversified ways.
Writing about the patterns of nature is an intellectual activity using the formalities of language and cultural conventions. It can only provide some mental aids, but this can be a starting point for a real appreciation of the natural world we are part of.
We do have a natural ability to live in the world we are born into, and we can reclaim our natural heritage, to become a people of the place we live in, understanding and sharing it in a compassionate and responsible way. Our technology does not have to be alienating and destructive, or our culture one of control and domination.
We can un-learn and re-learn, reclaiming our place in the natural world and our role as a connected and responsive part of the greater scheme of things that is life on this planet.
Reconnecting and experiencing our world in all its wonderful diversity and vitality is not only possible, it is a really practical way of bringing about a transformation in our lives, to a more balanced, healthier and creative way of living. We just need to start doing it.
Then we will change, our worldview will change, and we can be part of the solution instead of the problem.
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