April: On Nature

April 8

Welcome to the 100th episode of the Everyday Human!

Today's reflection was inspired by a quote from Henry David Thoreau's journal.

We answer to so many voices. We are controlled by so many things—circumstances, events, and decisions from others. And perhaps most of all, time. But not in the natural sense of time, the kind that is seasonal, rather a human-made version of it.

And the hourglass becomes a prison for us, the bars of the minute and second hands caging us in. 

But what if instead we lived with nature and with the seasons? What if we slept with the moon and woke with the sun? What if we embraced the chill air of winter and lazed in the summer heat? What if we drank the cider only after the apples were harvested in autumn, tasted the tomato and cantaloupe from the vine, still hot from the summer sun? What if we spun with the earth and changed our lives with the seasons? We would learn much about our planet and ourselves, I’d wager. 

• Reflection title: Tomatoes in Winter
• Creative inspiration: Henry David Thoreau, Journal
• Reflection Question: When did I last live with the seasons, truly embracing them? Have I ever? If not, how can I start today?