This short blog recycles the opening of my guest blog for The Wildlife Trusts’ 30 Days Wild campaign, just so I can add a few more ideas for going wild in June, and beyond!
A prosperous future depends on nature. We need to spark new interactions with the natural world and bring nature into our everyday lives – that’s why campaigns such as 30 Days Wild matter, for our, and nature’s wellbeing.
We can all make room for nature in different ways and 30 Days Wild is an ideal opportunity to walk a few pathways and find a route that works for you. Identifying the best pathways to follow to find a connection to nature is a topic of our research, particularly that of Ryan Lumber, a PhD student I supervise. Some current work is useful as it suggests 5 broad themes for 30 Days Wild – contact, emotion, beauty, compassion & meaning. These themes can act of prompts for your own ideas as you make room for nature and try to do something wild every day in June, and beyond.
Get out into nature and you can find wonder, beauty, meaning and compassion within an ash tree.
- Contact – get out into nature. Take a closer look and get in touch with nature.
- Meaning – consider what nature means to you. What are your signs of summer? What’s your favourite local tree and why?
- Compassion – think about what you could do for nature. Make a home for nature in your garden – an RSPB campaign.
- Emotion – find happiness and wonder in nature. Take a second, third, fourth and fifth look at trees, they’re awesome!
- Beauty – take time to appreciate beauty in nature. Take a moment to notice flowers and birdsong, leaves and sky; an awareness of nature’s beauty is key to getting connected and benefitting from nature.
There are plenty of ways to make nature part of your life, depending on what works for you. From being out, active and in contact, to reflecting on meaning, there are many types of wildness that can help make nature part of your everyday being.
