To let go is not to give up

​Nature. Silence. Stories. They don’t necessarily have to be applied in this order, each can be sought when needed and in personalised doses and they can be mixed without adverse effects. 

Nature with its innumerable species in various shapes, colors, scents, tastes - created and woven into each other’s lives through countless years - is undoubtedly under extreme pressure.

 I’ll jump over the dark reality of accelerating species loss and the decline of the living world in general, and instead invite you to go into a piece of nature. There is no hierarchy - whether it’s a step into a garden, onto a balcony, a park walk, forest bathing, or out onto the open sea or resting by a quiet lake. Hills with rivers are calling me, making my feet step into chilled, running water. Likewise, trees are magnets. Wind rustling the leaves on the trees is my favorite sound. At times of confusion or hopelessness, I will even claim they can speak to us. “To let go is not to give up,” whisper the dark green leaves insistently from their mosaic clusters, when I have a visit from an internal hurricane of worries.

Silence is not only golden as a figure of speech. The planet is wrapped in noise, and silence has become as rare as metals and minerals exploited to make phones, laptops, TVs, radios and cars. But once pockets of silence are exposed, you have the power to connect in ways devices can’t - connecting to oneself, to dreams as well as to fear and grief. Silence can be the stick in the wheel of a negative, spinning mind. Have you ever sat together with an unpleasant feeling in silence? Not trying to solve it as a problem but embracing it, like you would listen to a friend in need.
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Stories are portals to time travels, known emotions and unknown places. Opening books can also be like inviting friends, you didn’t know you had. Feeling understood and infused with ideas being integrated in your personalised storage of experiences, might be the seeds for the future you dream of.

“To see that your life is a story while you're in the middle of living it may be a help to living it well.”
Ursula K. Le Guin, Gifts

Are you inspired to write?

If you are inspired to write a page based on keeping well and active in an age of climate and nature emergencies, we would be pleased to hear from you. We're looking for a maximum of 380 words for each reading and it must be an original piece written by the person submitting it. All entries that are published will be anonymous.
For more information, or if you have any questions, email [email protected]

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