Natural Setting (2)

Viewing Nature Interactively

October 29nd, 2017

By SArah Clark

It was really interesting to try to “see” nature at the Lions gate the way Annie Dillard does (Dillard, 210).  Her book says that “such receptivity demands spiritual training” (Dillard, 210).  Dr. Redick had to train us how to use all of our senses again: taste, smell, touch, sound, sight.  As adults, sometimes we fall into just using sight and sound.  In order to have the full experience, it's important to go back to all of our senses stimuli.  We can’t expect for the world to give us the experience without experiencing it ourselves.  Martin Buber says “those who experience do not participate in the world. For the experience is ‘in them’ and not between them and the world. The world does not participate in experience. It allows itself to be experienced, but it is not concerned, for it contributes nothing, and nothing happens to it” (I and Thou, 56).  As we walked around the lions gate, we tasted honey suckles, smelled walnuts, and felt leaves and bark.  I realized how much more fun it was to interact with nature when I didn’t limit my experience to just sight and hearing.  One of the walkers that walked by us said, “this is odd.”  What we were doing was not something that allowed us to “participate in the world” but to experience it (I and Thou, 56).  Later that week I went back to try to have a similar experience with the training we were given.  I climbed a tree, using the thick handles of bark, and sat in the top.  I smelled some of the sap running down the tree.  Then I relaxed back in one of the strong limbs and watched the birds in their “sanctuary” (Redick).