Learning to Grow in Nature's Loving Embrace

Nurturing and facilitating reciprocal relationships with Mother Nature from infancy through childhood to adulthood and beyond

Hi, I’m Sue and I write about the beauty and ingenuity of Nature, and how we can deepen our connection for our optimum health and wellbeing. Discover more Nature-inspired content on Spiral Leaf, Twitter and my video Nature Channel.

I love finding ways to correlate our needs and desires as Human Beings with how we can enhance our lives by connecting with Mother Nature. I have been working on a correlation these last few weeks which is now ready to share. It details how Nature supports us and nourishes us through all phases of life and through each stage of development.

I realised that at every stage of our growth, Nature provides all the essential and beneficial things needed for our ultimate health, nurture and learning experience. When I wrote these down, it turned out to be quite a remarkable list of provisions.

I made a table with the different phases of growth from Embryo to Youth and listed all the things Mother Nature provides during each stage of our growth. You will see that this is culmulative and peaks as we become teenagers. It means that growing up in Nature’s loving embrace helps us to become the healthy, happy and enlightened souls we were designed to be.

I will explain each stage of growth and what Nature provides for us below. This is summarised in the chart below which is free to download from my website.

‘I’ the Embryo

As soon as we are conceived, through nine months of growth in our Mother’s womb, Mother Nature is there to provide for us.

Mother Nature plays her part by providing a comforting and nurturing womb for us to grow in; a steady flow of water and nuritional sustenance; intricately balanced immunity protection; the security and safety of a secure, watery cacoon in a perfectly warm, cosy, translucent darkness; the pulsing lull and quickening sychronicity of two consistent and complimentary heart beats …

And all the while, as our cells are multiplying and forming in a miraculous symphony of events, our whole self is gently and continuously being soothed and stimulated by sounds, words, vibrations and sensations radiating from the caring, comforting soul who bears us and the brand new world outside that awaits us.

For the Embryo, Nature provides: Comfort and Nurture, Nutrition and Health, Immunity and Safety, Sensory Experience.

[I bought the above picture of these tiny miracles of creation resting in a composite of a nest that was built with precision and skill to provide a home for a new family].

‘I’ the Infant

It is no coincidence that from new borns to little ones in the toddler phase and beyond, Nature is a friend to us all. Indigenous traditions and stories speak of Nature being employed as a babysitter for many a new born.

It’s always lovely to see a tiny baby lying in the grass kicking their legs and arms gleefully, reaching out to touch tiny bugs and butterflies flying by, cooing and giggling in soft baby tones and being mesmerised by sunlight dappling through the trees.

These wonderful first experiences are never forgotton (by us or them) and our connection with Nature is never broken. It is just as the Thirteen Grandmothers say about this stage in our growth which is related to EARTH:

When we are laid down on the Earth as a baby, we are connected to Mother Earth for the first time. When we sit up for the first time, we experience the strength in our backbone before we are helped to stand on our own two feet when we experience balance and connection with the ground.

These connections and experiences never leave us, they sustain us and forever we know that Nature is there for us to provide sustenance, nutrients, healing, space, freedom, calm, comfort, inspiration and so on. It is ingrained into us that Nature is a constant in our lives that provides for all our needs and never fails us.

This is why it is so important for new borns and infants to experience Nature in safe, warm and stimulating natural environments. It’s a wonderful thing to do because it will instil a love and appreciation in them for Mother Nature that will last a lifetime.

For the Infant, Nature provides: Comfort and Nurture, Nutrition and Health, Immunity and Safety, Sensory Experience; Stimulation and Focus, Wonder and Awe, Laughter and Joy.

[I bought the above picture of this perfect row of tiny fluffy Swallow babies featuring an inquisitive one leaning forward with head tilted to one side to see what's up. It portrays the exhuberant innocence and curiosity of the infant/toddler very well and always gives me a warm fuzzy feeling].

‘I’ the Toddler

We all know how much toddlers love being in Nature - splish, splash, splosh!

From taking their first tentative steps to splashing in their first puddle and running round in cirlcles for the pure pleasure of running round in circles, enter the toddler. A big personality with a growing sense of self representing a real-live manifestation of lightening-quick movement, high energy and insatiable curiousity.

I like to remember or imagine what that sense of freedom felt like at such an early age. That sense of life being so fresh and fascinating, the constant amazement and wonder when every waking moment is an exciting opportunity to explore and experience something new.

I wrote about infants and toddlers having a lantern consciousness in a previous post which they use to explore the world. As American Professor of Psychology and Affiliate Professor of Philosophy at the University of California and author of The Philosophical Baby, Alison Gopnik, explains:

They take in everything around them like a lantern casting light in all directions. They have the ability to flit from one thing to another as they make sense of things such as Nature's treasures, social encounters and the dynamics of sitting, standing and walking as they continue to grow.

A toddler’s world of magic and awe lasts until perhaps the age of five which is plenty of time to facilitate lots and lots of fun times and learning experiences in the loving arms of Mother Nature.

Keeping a firecracker of a toddler entertained, stimulated and naturally worn out at the end of the day (hopefully) is always a challenge. I have no children of my own sadly, but I have been a Nanny (oversesas) for four young children and an Aunty to two until they grew up, so I do understand. In my experience, finding things to do in Nature and engaging in advantures of discovery is a great way to keep little ones entertained.

I think we all like to spend time with a child in Nature. It gives us the opportunity to be a kid again and see life through the fresh and untarnished eyes of the innocent. Engaging children in activities that involve Nature is the perfect way to create fun learning environments that help everyone involved to learn and grow.

For the Toddler, Nature provies: Comfort and Nurture, Nutrition and Health, Immunity and Safety, Sensory Experience; Stimulation and Focus, Wonder and Awe, Laughter and Joy, Space and Freedom, Imagination and Creativity, Exploring and Questioning.

[I took the above picture of this serene Mother Duck with her babies on the canal where one especially adventurous Duckling kept paddling on ahead and getting lost until Mum gracefully rounded him (or her) back in to continue on their way as a family].

‘I’ the Child/Youth

The gap between toddler and young child or teenager has decreased alarmingly over the years as children have been weaponised for marketing purposes and lured into an often stressful and competitive premature adulthood.

I have tremendous respect for young people who have had a hard time of it in recent years. Too young children are being made to make their own decisions while older children are not given the support they need to realise their full and beautiful potential.

We can learn so much about ourselves by observing, listening to and supporting children of all ages. It is up to us to understand their needs and desires, especially in the early years, and facilitate them to learn safely and in a way that is helpful to them throughout their lives.

There is no doubt that, at any age, being in Nature and developing reciprocal, caring relationships with all living things, helps to equip a young person with practical knowledge, awareness and skills that can be applied to real life situations and used to enhance their quality of life. I will be sharing practical ways to do exactly this in furture posts.

Providing healthy learning and growing environments for children outside the ‘corporate’ system designed to work completely against our best interests is essential and Nature provides the means to do this.

It is so important to know that the Gregorian Calender interupts our connection with Nature and was designed to keep us trapped in the old, outdated, repetative and low frequency levels of POWER v ETHICS for our entire lifetime. This prevents us from realising the power of our own higher consciousness where we consciously co-create the world we want to live in where ethics is a given and living peacefully together in harmony with Nature is the norm.

With this information available to us, we realise that those of us who are aware are already operatiing at this much higher level of consciousness in alignment with the Universe. It means we are aleady consciously co-creating the world we want to see.

This must increasingly include facilitating, teaching and supporting infants, children and young people to enhance their connection with Nature as a means to realising their own co-creating potential. It means learning how to live together in harmony according to Natural Law .

It is heartening that to do no harm as the answer to the world’s problems is a given for the majority of young people (a recent conversation with a bright and highly intelligent five year old confirmed this to me). While we are ‘umming’ and ‘arring’ about what it means and how it might impact on us, it makes perfect sense to an innocent mind and it’s time for the adults to catch up.

When we teach each other and support young people to grasp this concept, we can work together with them to achieve Unity Consciousness together. We all have gifts to share and right now, it is up to the grown ups to focus on what matters and find the most practical and beneficial ways to make it happen.

For the Child and Youth (Teenager), Nature provides: Comfort and Nurture, Nutrition and Health, Immunity and Safety, Sensory Experience; Stimulation and Focus, Wonder and Awe, Laughter and Joy, Space and Freedom, Imagination and Creativity, Exploring and Questioning, Learning and Retention, Problem Solving and Rationale, Resourcefulness and Skills, Teamwork and Sharing, Adventrure and Stories, Excitement and Danger, Helpfulness and Caring, Gratitude and Friendship, Trust and Love.

Learning to grow in reciprocity with Nature

I chose the above picture from my library because of the alert and questioning expression of this beautiful animal which reminds me how important it is for us to stand tall, engage energetically, listen inquisitively and communicate playfully with each other, with our young, with our elders and with Nature, as we all know we can.

We each have a delightfully unique personality to share, a spiritual connection that binds us together and the sovereign right to be ourselves and live peacefully on this beautiful planet Earth. We all have a place here and we all have the right to grow in harmony with each other and with Nature, in tandem with the spiritual evolution of the high frequency energies of the Unvierse.

There is no question that Nature was designed to provide for our needs and desires as we evolve but it is a choice for us to participate and it’s a two way street.

To live in harmony with Nature, we have to learn to reciprocate with the natural world and build healthy relationships. As Robin Wall Kimmerer so beautifully explains in her book Braiding Sweetgrass: A species and a culture that treat the natural world with respect and reciprocity will surely pass on genes to ensuing generations with a higher frequency than the people who destroy it.

We all deserve to learn what we need to learn so that we can evolve naturally, fruitfully and joyously through life. We all deserve to be ouselves and express ourselves freely.

Collectively, we have more than enough knowledge and capability to create a way of life for ourselves that benefits everyone. We have all the skills, resources and abilities we need to create a beautiful world that fulfils everyone’s potential and that of Nature too! So let’s endeavour to join together in friendly, caring and creative ways to make it happen for us, in the here and now, and for future generations.

In my next post, I will talk about how the above correlates with the Evolution of Consciousness as it aligns to the Mayan Calendar.

It will provide further evidence that we are evolving to a higher consciousness whether we like it or not and that hanging onto (or fighting) lower frequency energies and old ways of doing things only serves to slow our progress and hold us back.

I hope this post shows how much Mother Nature provides for us throughout our lives and how reciprocal relationships with the natural world help us to grow in happiness and health as Nature always intended.

Thank you for being here, a warm welcome to so many wonderful new subscribers - I look forward to seeing you again soon.

DOWNLOAD THE CHART

Growing with Nature Chart - FREE Downloads by Spiral Leaf