Conversations with Nature

Conversations with Nature

Although creation may be “wordless,” we can still dialogue with it as St. Francis did. Bill Plotkin suggests a practice of “talking across the species boundaries” in his book Soulcraft:

Go wandering [in nature]. Bring your journal. . . . Wander aimlessly until you feel called by something that draws your attention, by way of an attraction, a curiosity, an allurement, a repulsion, a fear. . . . Whatever it is, sit and observe it closely for a good length of time. Interact with your senses, offer your full visual and aural attention to the Other. Record in your journal what you observe.

Then introduce yourself, out loud—yes, out loud. . . . Tell this being about yourself. . . . Tell the truth, your deepest, most intimate truth. In addition to ordinary human language, you might choose to speak with song, poetry . . . movement, gesture, dance. Then, using the same speech options, tell that being everything about it you have noticed. . . . Keep communicating no matter what . . . until it interrupts you.

Then stop and listen. Listen with your ears, eyes, nose, skin, intuition, feeling, and imagination. . . . In your journal, record and/or draw what happens. Offer the Other your gratitude and a gift . . . a song, a dance, a lock of hair, praise . . . some water. . . .

Enter your conversations with the Others with the intention of learning about them and developing a relationship, but don’t be surprised if you thereby discover more about yourself. [1]

And more about God who created them.