Bruce Stanley

Does nature have value? Of course it does. But how do we measure that value? And what happens when the way we measure something changes the way we see it? One dominant way of measuring nature’s value has been as a material resource for humans to use. Land is valuable if it produces crops, timber, grazing, minerals, housing, profit. That measure has shaped much of the modern world, not always beautifully or kindly. Another way of valuing nature emerged through the protection and value of wild...

It's easy to live too far above our own life to notice our baseline. Nature connection can teach us the value of normal. There's a practice in nature connection called the sit spot. You choose a place; a corner of a garden, a park bench, the foot of a particular tree, and you return to it regularly to sit and sense and do nothing except pay attention. At first, you notice the obvious things. Temperature. Birds. Wind. Light through leaves. Smells. But over time, something more interesting...

If you’ve ever had the sense that God was getting your attention through the natural world, then the next question is how to stay with that moment well. Whatever the moment is about to be ... my first advice is NOT to take a photo of it. That bursts the 'moment' bubble. And, if you're a bit more practised than that, don't immediately label it (that's a sunset, or that's achillea millefolium , as can happen in my head). Don't grab its surface meaning or jump to any fast interpretation....