Welcome to the Grow Inward Podcast, I am your host Adrian Petrillo.
Today we are going to talk about one of my all time favorite things in my own life, which is the value of having a connection to nature. I can’t even tell you how much it has meant to me in my own life, and I am sure there are plenty of you out there who can relate to that. Nature does so much more for us than we often realize or appreciate, and it is a connection that we all share as a part of life on this planet.
As I have mentioned previously, I was blessed with growing up in the Rocky Mountains and that has been my playground for nearly all of my life. Growing up in the mountains and spending so much time out in nature has been the absolute best part of my life, it is where I feel most at home and there is no place I would rather be.
My connection to nature goes as far back as I can remember, I can’t remember a time when it wasn’t the most important thing to me? It kind of makes me laugh, because in a world full of material distractions that have only increased over the years, my favorite things in life have always been completely natural and free. I may have had to spend a little money on things that help me navigate or spend more time in nature, but I can hike on a trail or sit next to a stream and listen to the birds for hours and be 100% at peace and perfectly fulfilled. It really doesn’t take much to make me really and truly happy, drop me off in the mountains and I am good to go!
Now I realize that not everyone feels that way, but I sometimes wonder if we aren’t all capable of experiencing that? I find it hard to believe that a peaceful day outdoors isn’t something that everybody loves, but hey, maybe I am just biased? It’s just hard to believe after all of the amazing experiences that I have had in nature over the years. I mean I have had some truly magical moments that defied anything I have experienced in the material world, and I continue to search for more to this very day.
My mom and sister think I am a nut for going out to some of these remote places by myself, but it’s hard to explain to those who don’t do that how alive it makes me feel and how comfortable and content I am out there? This immediately makes me think of what I discussed on the first episode of this season about our connection to nature and how much it can benefit you in your life. I know this from direct personal experience over many, many years of practicing this myself. I also love all of the historical accounts of others who have lived in close contact with nature who also have expressed how much it benefited them in deeply spiritual and emotional ways.
I can’t help but think of John Muir and some of his incredible writing on this subject. He had such an incredible way with words that put you right into the heart of the scene where you could feel what he was experiencing. Here is a lovely quote that captures some of the beauty that I myself find when out in nature:
“The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us. Thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing. The trees wave and the flowers bloom in our bodies as well as our souls, and every bird song, wind song, and tremendous storm song of the rocks in the heart of the mountains is our song, our very own, and sings our love.”
― John Muir
I can feel these connections within myself when I am far away from everything in our material world, when silence is the loudest thing around me and it is here that my heart feels the most free. I am fortunate to live in a place where there are endless options to explore this kind of solitude and beauty, and I very consciously moved to such a place for exactly that purpose. I have never felt more at home than I do exploring these places, and I have never felt more happy in my life to be somewhere that this is all in my own backyard.
I find it interesting that I can find this same peace and happiness just sitting next to a river and listening to the wind and the water, it doesn’t always have to be the most beautiful or perfect place to enjoy what nature has to offer us. Sometimes just listening to the birds outside or taking a walk somewhere can be all it takes to completely lift up my spirits and brighten my day, but the farther out you go into nature the more that it will reveal to you.
I always admired the way that so many tribes have lived and continue to live so close to nature, they have learned to live in harmony with it and it provides all that they need. I think it is easy to become accustomed to all the comforts that we enjoy today, but there is something very appealing to me about being closer to nature and not having everything be so easy or under appreciated. I have no illusions that this would be an easier way of life, but I do think it could be a more fulfilling way of life in many ways, and I would jump at the chance to experience that personally. I would have no problem giving up the material world to see what the opposite would feel like, and to experience the connections that it would inherently create both internally and externally? You may roll your eyes at that, but I believe that the materialistic world and paradigm is stealing much more from us than we realize. It is at the very least worth considering in my view?
I have many stories that I could share about moments in nature that really made me question what I truly understand about it, but I want to share just one such story with you here. This happened quite a few years ago when I was in my 20’s. I had actually 4-wheeled up to a spot in the Sangre De Cristo mountain range near Westcliffe, Colorado to the base of a well known Fourteener called Crestone Needle. This is a very technical climb to summit, unlike the majority of the Fourteeners in Colorado which you can hike right up to the top of.
Anyway, I wasn’t planning on summiting the peak, but I did want to hike up to the base of it and check it out and so I did. I hiked up from where I had drove and it took me quite a while to get up there. As I approached the area below the trailhead of this peak there was a lake and a stream that was below that. I decided to stop and have some lunch by the creek for a bit. As I was looking for spot to rest and have lunch, I noticed a Bighorn Sheep up near the lake which was really cool. It was a little far away though and I couldn’t see it well so I just found my spot and sat down.
I was sitting there as happy as could be in this absolutely stunning location by the creek, and all of a sudden I hear a bunch of tromping above me. Well, here come about 20 or so Bighorn Sheep right down to the creek where I am sitting. There were some babies and some mama’s and a couple of these big Rams also, and they marched right down to where I was and started drinking out the creek. I was amazed at how uninterested in my presence that they all seemed to be, after all these are wild animals in the middle of the Rocky Mountains? This one baby was literally so close to me that I could have reached out and pet it, it was crazy?
Now I am just sitting there eating my sandwich thoroughly enjoying this impossible event and this went on for probably 10 minutes or so. They all decided to finally move on and walked right past me just looking at me as they walked by and they all just continued on down the mountain side. It was such an incredible moment that I will never forget! I always joke that it was the perfect national geographic moment, and naturally I had no camera to even take a picture! It didn’t really matter though, because it was such a magical moment that it is burned into my memory forever, and I am so grateful that I got to experience that.
My niece loves to call me Snow White (laughs) because of all my crazy encounters with animals over the years, and I have a few to be certain! Many of them so completely unusual that it kind of defies logic in many ways? Animals have just always seemed to love me, and I love them. I think that animals somehow just know this, much like children often do interestingly, and I think it’s just that simple? In return, I get to have amazing and often hilarious experiences that are like little rewards just for the virtue of being a kind and gentle soul.
That particular experience in the moment was very interesting, because I just felt this deeply close connection to those animals and nature. It is hard to explain, but it was palpable and unique and I didn’t have to do anything but just be? I believe that nature will often reveal moments like this to you in many different ways, and it is for this reason that I encourage you to spend more time out in nature and allow those to come to you. You don’t have to try to be or do anything, you just need to be yourself and enjoy the space you find yourself, the rest will happen organically.
Times and experiences like this leave you feeling lighter and happier, and those feelings don’t fade away as fast as you might think. Often just reflecting on special moments when you feel this way can bring you right back to that moment and put you right back in it as if you were there. It is for this reason that value is experienced in more than just the moment, and the more time you take to experience these moments the deeper your storehouse becomes to draw from when you need or want it.
Nature also serves as a wonderful space for reflection, it’s like this natural outlet that we can plug ourselves into and recharge without hardly any effort at all. By simply being there we can establish this connection, and as our minds quiet down and become immersed in our surroundings reflection just happens naturally. I really want to encourage you to get out in nature more, even if you live in the city and have seemingly nowhere like this to go. Just make the best of what you have available and be outside for a bit, you can make it work.
I often wonder if this is something that people need or want help with? I feel like I would be really good at taking people out into the woods for this kind of experience, just because I have done this for my whole life and I also live in the perfect place to share in this way? I am curious what you think about that and I would encourage you to email me using the link below if you would be interested in something like that? It would be my pleasure to help people experience this if they felt like they needed a chaperon of sorts? I don’t know, maybe someone would like that perhaps, let me know?
The cool part of that would be we get to touch on all three parts of connection that I talked about in the first episode. Being out in nature can be a very spiritual experience for some, obviously we would have the connection to nature part included, and we get to build community with like minds and shared experiences. It really is a wonderful opportunity to share these things and have more meaningful conversations about them as well? I will leave it up to you to reach out if this would interest you?
Until next time, never underestimate the power you have within you, and keep growing inward.
