Connection

One response to stomping globalization and recent atrocities of all kinds could be a return to close acquaintance with local environment, a pulling back into the beautiful diversity of small-scale observation and appreciation. Less talking and watching, more seeing and noticing. Getting to know the world in our immediate vicinity does more than enhance real as opposed to superficial knowledge and understanding: it offers a sense of purposeful belonging. It gives a multi-layered quality to everyday life that can satisfy restless yearning for 'meaning' or the transient excitement of novelty. And it's an infinite exercise, an exploration that will occupy even a long lifetime. Connection with our own land is connection with our own lost selves.