Heritage Researcher Mel Tuckett explores some of the rich tapestry of experiences people have shared with NHSN through the Nature’s Cure project
NHSN’s Nature’s Cure Project has loved collecting stories about nature and how it has helped people to keep well and keep going. Generously funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, our project wants to capture and share the widest possible diversity of voices. Every story we are given is safely stored in the North East Nature Archive to take its place within the rich history of NHSN.
In this blog we are proud to share some fascinating stories from around the world. They reveal how, far and wide, a love of nature has inspired study, influenced travel and informed life choices. These beautiful accounts remind us that nature can be a force for unity and connection across the world. They also tell us how fortunate we are to have such a rich diversity of experience in our local area.
In our first story, Saunak Pal talks about his early years in India and the questions prompted by nature that he wanted to answer as a child.
“Coming from a small town in India, I have always been surrounded by nature. I grew up near the foot hills of the Western Ghats – a biodiversity hotspot, thriving with wildlife.
In my school days, I often used to find various frogs, lizards and other animals coming into our backyard, taking refuge under logs and old scrap material. Most of my evenings went, catching frogs and mantises to look at them, attempt to draw them. Sadly, I wasn’t allowed to keep them in my home and so had to let them go.
These formative days somehow made me ask questions about why some snakes were only found in a particular season, where do they go in other time?”
Ana Vasquez reveals how she found peace in the beauty of nature, sharing her childhood encounters with bears, axolotls and skunks. She now loves to see her daughter forming a relationship with the natural world.
“Most of my life I lived in a very big city. My father would take me camping. In those trips many exciting things would happen, such as finding a bear when trying to find a bush for my “nature’s call” or a skunk throwing its urine onto my little friend. Then afterwards had to take too many showers for anyone’s comfort. But then we moved to an even larger city where axolotls live in a lake but the mountains are far away. There were lime trees in the garden but they do not mean much to me. Until I was, 15 years later, on a plane to the land of the black mambas, as a city girl I was forced to live in a house with a papaya tree waking us up by a fallen papaya and bats living over our fake ceiling, but then I rediscovered stars, lots of it and while looking at those gorgeous night skies I had a symphony of frogs and toads. And found myself needing those feelings many many nights after. Until we moved here and went to the lakes in Scotland where I finally got that beautiful feeling again. Which has been passed to our beautiful daughter who stops to smell every flower and very often has under her nose lots of the yellow powder that is pollen.”
Here, Junkai Zhang gives us his insights into Taoism, a belief system originating from Chinese culture. For him, nature is integral to human experience and a key aspect of his spiritual life.
“Nature is the origin of humanity, what moulds our personality, culture, inspiration, society, etc. There is such sentence from Laozi, an ancient philosophy book in China: “People’s laws come from Earth; Earth’s laws come from heaven; heaven’s laws come from nature. (“人法地，地法天，天法道，道法自然。”) And in the very same book of Taoism, it says humanity and nature are supposed to be one (天人合一).
Living with nature, is the simplest yet ultimate truth of life. A bit fresh air, a patch of greenness, a meadow of colours, make the easiest way to relieve and relax most of time.
Nature is magic, ever-changing, and full of mysteries we do not really understand, knowledge to be learned through continuous discovery.
Rainforests in Mid-South America, temperate rainforests and highlands in Scotland, mountains of the Cairngorms, and that all blue ocean surrounding the British Isles and the whole world……. No matter where, nature gives surprises and new experiences in enormous variety.
Because of growing variety of nature, there is growing variety of life, and so, we have growing inspiration and spirits. By learning from nature, we get ideas for development, for better world.
All those dynamics, incrediblity, splendor, wonders and beauty, are what we try to replicate and unable to do so. Nature is the greatest book, the wisest mentor, the parent of all life, and where we find feelings of calmness, and excitedness, where we feel the might and existence of God.”
For Sampurna Reychoudhury it was an instinctive connection with nature which shaped her life. A memorable experience on a tiger reserve confirmed that a career as an ecologist was to be her future.
“I am an ecologist now but wasn’t always sure I could become one. My parents convinced me to take up a different career path and while I followed their wishes, I was never really satisfied.
But we’d go on family trips to nature reserves or cool landscapes and I’d immediately feel connected with the environment. This one time in a Tiger reserve, I helped the guide track down an alarm call and I felt like I was truly in my element. A few years later, I was studying biology and doing my final year project on tiger conservation.”
And lastly, this anonymous writer talks about how they travelled the world but realised that nature had always been their home, a sentiment that we think all nature lovers can identify with. These inspiring stories of distant experiences tell us that although we may come from many different places and backgrounds, we can be united by a love of nature. Wherever we are, nature has the power to inspire and connect.
“One of my first memories in Nature was going to my local park with my dad. I must have been 4 or 5 years old. We would feed the ducks, look at the horses near the railway, and lie on the grass.
As I got older, about to enter my 2nd year of art college, I decided my heart lay somewhere else. I started a new course studying animal management, which progressed into zookeeping, to international conservation to finally UK conservation.
My whole life, nature has served as home. A place where I feel comfort, happiness and meaning to life. My journey with nature has led me from the west midlands, the mountains of eastern Europe, the plains of Africa, the rainforests of Madagascar, and now the breathtaking scenes of the northeast. A place where nature truly makes me feel ‘home’.”
If you have a story to tell, you can submit it online using this link: Share Your Story About Nature’s Cure in Time of Need – Natural History Society of Northumbria
We still want to widen the range of voices in our archive and people from diverse ethnic backgrounds are particularly welcome to take part in our project. If you’re involved in community groups of people of global majority, we would love to work with you, and can offer workshops, nature walks, archive trips and other activities. Get in touch with us at nhsn@newcastle.ac.uk
