Bruce Stanley

A few days ago, I walked from a spectacular viewpoint down into a valley alive with signs of spring, and used the walk as a simple nature prayer practice. The path wove through woodland, old mine workings and quarry ground, then back up towards the start. It was one of those walks where spring was delightful and hard to miss. Wood sorrel was flowering in the shade. New birch leaves were almost impossibly fresh, soft and vulnerable. Ferns were beginning to unfurl, honeysuckle was winding...

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...