Art in Nature: Reciprocal

Reciprocal Nature Prompt: First Week of March

Nature prompt: Reciprocal

‘Tell us about how nature inspires creativity…’

Sahil Patel *edited.

Ah, that is a good question. How? Contemplating all that nature taught us just last year, I realised that was a lot. To take and quote two sentences of my own which feature later. Both when nature thrived,

Sunflowers soared like satellites reaching for the sky

And when it didn’t,

The hot weather confused and confounded the fuchsias

One would think that all that can be said of art and nature is already said. If life imitates art, or art imitates life, surely we cannot still be wondering about nature.

After all, we have already been told.

We have been told not to dismiss nature, but to work with it.

Have we ignored this plea for too long? But we are listening now.

All around me saplings are being planted. I live in south Gloucestershire and we have learned that trees will suck up extra water for us. A tall tree was cut down in our neighbourhood, and all of a sudden the gardens were flooded. I had to make an effort to find something that enjoyed copious amounts of water, or keeping its roots wet. A difficult task.

I have learnt that some flowers ward off others. That is called allelopathic. Beans and sunflowers are like this. That is why you often find them growing alone in gardens. They grow quickly and need nutrients in abundance for our short season of growing. You will need to replant them next year.

You can learn a lot from nature. Nature teaches us to be patient and to wait for the growing season. Not yet.

You shouldn’t trim your shrubs when it is too cold. They don’t like it. Last year, the hot weather confused and confounded the fuchsias. Their growth was stunted. African daisies adored the heat and grew in abundance. Sunflowers soared like satellites reaching for the sky. Nature teaches us that we need certain conditions to thrive just as nature does.

During the pandemic, Nature had a break from havoc wreaked by incessant noise from traffic and aeroplanes. Birds nested closer to roads and could be heard chirping and chattering.

A heron lit on a garage roof and a week later there was no sign of our goldfish.

Nature is a teacher. Good and bad comes of the same weather.

We can learn a lot from its curves and stripes, its brilliant colour, its subtle shades that blend and weave, its neediness, its thriving, and its dying. Its singing, and its silence which tempts us to be silent in its quiet embrace.

Nature teaches us to live creatively, and to thrive creatively.

The second paragraph really drew me in to this story about different experiences of fire and what fire can do. I felt that I was with the child and her father in this story by Joyce Nielsen

I enjoyed being returned to Ecclesiastes in this story from Mia Verita which reminds us that life is full of duality and changes.

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