I am a wife, mom, and nature lover living in the Pacific Northwest. My writing represents the intersection of my interests in nature, creativity, parenting, and human development.
Sunday Letter: Ecological Selfhood
We must make the decision to live in harmony with our unique self moment by moment. This notion of selfhood wasn’t taught to me in school, at home, or in religion. Like all new awareness, I learned about it through my own experience first through a deep connection to nature and then through my quest to discover teachers who could help me learn how to make the harmonious feelings of being persist.
Nature was often a vitamin for a busy life, but then the pandemic afforded me a new experience. Suddenly the natural world, which was always part of my wellness regime, became a balm for others as well. Forced outside of our indoor existence and removed from the pressures of Western culture, many people reconnected with their ecological selves and began to realize just how out of sync their “normal” life was.
Now though as we edge closer to celebrating Earth Day, the business culture of the world is clamoring for the visible control of their workers. They wish to bring people back into an indoor existence in the name of progress. Will workers push back? Will they allow the dysfunction of a culture that was built on maximum efficiency to affect them again?
There is a way to work in the world and retain your sense of self, your equilibrium, and your sanity. There is also a way to invite workers back into collaboration and community while recognizing that their newly realized wisdom of living in harmony with oneself could create conflict– but change is necessary for growth.
We all require a delicate balance to provide our interrelated existence and the flexibility each of us needs to thrive and share our gifts into the culture.
We can all look to the natural world to see a world out of balance with itself. The question is, will we heed its warnings?
Be well,
Kathy
Kathy Donchak
Writer
I am a wife, mom, and nature lover living in the Pacific Northwest. My writing represents the intersection of my interests in nature, creativity, parenting, and human development.
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