The Shutdown Made Me Reconnect With Nature
What it taught me about life.
A global pandemic and the following shutdown impacted our lives drastically. Although on a superficial level, my life didn’t change. As a law student preparing for my final exams, staying inside all day was pretty much all I did.
Still, once the shutdown has been announced, I suddenly realized that I was missing nature. After neglecting the local flora for years, I decided to follow this new-found desire.
Living in Germany, I was still allowed to walk through forests. But this many flowers at once would be overstimulating, I thought. So I decided to grow my own plants at home. That way, I would be the one in control.
I began by choosing the flowers I wanted to grow. My criteria were relatively straightforward. The plant had to
- be useful in any way, and
- live longer than one year (unless they die because of my mistakes).
I first chose a banana tree — did you know that the edible bananas don’t contain potent seeds anymore and can only multiply via offsprings? — and a few prickly pears.
I spare you with getting into too much detail of how and when my plants grew. I was told that such information is only interesting when it concerns someone’s own plants, anyway.
But these prickly pears were challenging my patience like no other. It took them about two weeks to sprout and they are now still in their early stages of growth.
But it is the same patience that makes me love investing so much. It’s the idea of sacrificing time and effort of the presence for a greater good in the future. It is basically the Stanford Marshmellow Experiment all over again, but this time with prickly pears.
Let’s get practical
Now that I have been talking about my plants all the time: What did they teach me? And, more importantly, what can you gain from reconnecting with nature, too?
1. An appreciation for the beauty of life
Bringing something to life and growing it is a remarkable feeling.
I have been so caught up between the various task on my devices that I have neglected nature for a long time. Now that I am actively participating in it, however, I gained back the ability to cherish nature again.
I appreciate the little sprinkles on the leaves of my banana tree — which hopefully belong there. I enjoy the sun more and even caught myself proudly watching a few bees diligently doing their work.
Experiencing the beauty of life in the form of my plants created a new foundation of peace and harmony.
Life could be so peaceful if everybody just grew their own banana tree.
2. A sense of grounding
Whether you are walking through nature or are creating one of your own from the comfort of your home, it will help you to ground yourself.
Enjoying the beauty of nature makes you realize that there is more to life than stress and deadlines. It gives you a new perspective on everything you are doing.
This doesn’t mean that you will just sit in your garden and count the butterflies enjoying your work — although you could. Instead, I realized that growing my own plants and sitting in nature while studying created a healthy distance to the pressure associated with my tasks.
I gained just enough space to make the fear of failure diminish, but I am still close enough to it that I take my studies seriously. This combination made studying not only more joyful for me but also more productive.
Being grounded enables you to be more efficient without overthinking potential stressors. And if everything else fails, I know that I can simply live off bananas for the rest of my life.
3. Patience
Do you know how long it takes to grow a seed into something useful?
The correct answer is: Too long — way too long. I already told you about the first two weeks of not knowing whether or not the prickly pear seeds were even functioning.
But after that, as soon as the plants are alive and growing, it turns into a pleasant form of patience. You know where you want to end up with your plants. They shall prosper, become strong, and bear fruits. You also, however, enjoy every moment with them while they are small, in need of protection, and slowly growing.
It is the same pleasant patience that you develop when you are working on your dreams. You know where you want to end up and which routes you need to get there. And even though you desperately want to end up at your destination, you still enjoy the journey and the necessary daily practices.
Appreciate your journey. It will be what you remember.