Celebrating Earth Day — 10 Lessons from Nature

Happy Earth Day! Over a billion people celebrated, honoured and remembered our shared mother, Spaceship Earth. Today is also a reminder that humanity is in a race between catastrophe and consciousness. Many trusted sources give us 5–7 years to address the existential risks created by climate change. Our collective actions over the next decade represent the tipping point that will determine the quality of life for generations. The challenges we collectively face are unprecedented. Yet these challenges create the fertile soil for a unified planetary civilization to emerge.

On this day of celebration I wanted to share 10 lessons I’ve learnt from nature:

1. We are nature — Many people believe nature is somewhere we go into, something ‘out there’. I prefer to see that as wilderness. Nature surrounds us and is us. Humans are the only species that is not in right relationship with nature because we forgot that we are nature.
2. Nature celebrates community — I admire the interdependence in every biosphere and ecosystem I observe. Nature is the ultimate collaboratory — a celebration of common unity. Cooperation normally outperforms competition in nature.
3. Celebrating the feminine — Everywhere I look in nature I see the worship of the feminine — the mother. I am reminded of how human civilization has been out of balance between masculine and feminine. I commissioned my dear friend Amanda Sage to paint the Vitruvian Human (below) as a birth present for my daughter to symbolize the harmony of the masculine and feminine as the key for us to remember our role as stewards.
4. We are Stewards — We ran out of time to be sustainable, we must be regenerative. I am deeply inspired by the Seventh Generation Principle which considers the impact on seven generations of descendants in deliberations.
5. The Universal Language — All living things are in a perpetual state of communication. Dolphins remember friends even after 20 years apart. Trees and plants communicate with each other using pheromones. All life is connected and communicating. Love is a universal language.
6. This too shall pass — Nothing stays the same and nothing lasts forever. Natures celebrates impermanence.
7. The seasons — Death is integral to life. Nature teaches me about maturation and patience. We can learn a great deal by observing the seasons and embracing them into our relationship with time.
8. Resilience — The harder something struggles the stronger it becomes. Diamonds are created under pressure.
9. As above, so below — Nature fractals. The Macrocosm is reflected in the Microcosm. In our lives we can see the shadow of the individual reflected in the shadow of the collective and vice versa. This is expressed in sacred geometry visible everywhere in nature such as the Fibonacci Sequence.
10. Collective Intelligence — The sum is typically greater than the parts. Looking to bee hives, ants nests, termite mounds and other such examples of collective intelligence inspire me. Nature teaches me that collective intelligence is a natural and common phenomenon.

The Vitruvian Human by Amanda Sage