In this season of learning how to see, we have been in conversation about how we see the natural world around us.

Ironically, we could have this conversation without realizing that we are part of the natural world of which we speak.

Our eyes evolved as part of the evolution of fish, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals, our thinking capacities

rely on what sage poet Mary Oliver called the soft animal of the body. In today's episode, we sink

into the soft animal of our body by realizing that we are seeing nature as the larger whole or web

or kinship or family of which we are apart. We will ease into the reality today that we are

seeing nature.

You'll meet a gifted writer and poet,

and you'll learn a bit of her story

as we explore how waking up to the distinctiveness

of one specific thing can be a portal

into the connectedness of all things.

You'll sense how a move from domination to respectful interaction or conviviality can help us see realities our culture often renders invisible or inconsequential.

I hope you'll feel how seeing nature leads to loving nature and how

loving nature leads to preserving rather than exploiting nature and how in saving

nature we are also saving ourselves. Thank you for joining us for this episode of learning how to see,

learning how to see nature.

Felicia Merle grew up in the red clay of North Carolina. She learned to love the earth.

She learned to love trees and clouds and rivers and lakes. She learned to love words. She became a writer and a poet.

And you'll be hearing some selections of her poetry through today's

episode. She's the author of, and the restorative power of love in an either or world,

and will include links in the show notes.

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