The Seasons of Nature Differ From Our Social Calendar

With the exception of the abstract world of thought, our bodies operate organically on a natural cycle

We spent a year together with a lifelong friend and his wife.

They took us through spring in the lush countryside, summer floating among blissful islands and winter up on those purifying mountaintops, somewhat detached from the constructions of the social calendar and revolution of technology. And along the way, we discovered how the people approach nature with the proper reverence and respect it deserves. It's a very different idea about how you should exist, you know. They haven't severed themselves from the natural world as much, and so their relationship with it is different. And being a part of that even for a while was incredible.

We understood that much of what we experienced in our daily lives in the city, was an abstract creation of human thought. The congested train ride to and fro work. The smog from car fumes waiting idle at the traffic lights. The excruciating pain endured during that period of the menstrual cycle, every month, and still showing up, smiling and doing what has to be done, as if it was any other day. The restaurants, cafes and bars that serve predominantly stimulants and toxins by the glass, coffee, wine, spirits. The need to wake up at the specified hour and do the specified tasks, everyday, five days a week, regardless of what we’re going through privately. The events and dinners we must attend, week after week, if only to let people know we’re still in the game.

Our bodies and minds did not cope with much of this abstract world. We were able to adapt, yet this was never enough. The congested train rides inevitably drained our energy and damaged our natural immunity. The smog and low air quality made breathing harder, subtly at first, then more and more as time went on. The irrelevance of society and its people to unavoidable inner pain created both anger and numbness within. The stimulants and toxins constantly made our nervous systems out of balance and our bodies perpetually under stress. The routine drudgery of the professional and social schedule took away our zest for play and for life itself.

As a result, we began to compensate. Compensating made certain aspects of daily life easier in the short term, and other aspects inevitably harder in the medium to long term.

Eventually, we started a thought experiment together. Up until now, we had been learning about our selves and the world around us. We had seen a lot, and come to understand a great deal about the ways we function, about the way society functions and our role in it. And in the process, we had been submissive to the world’s needs and opportunities and trade-offs effectively since birth. We were very much living from the outside in. We had now lived a year amidst the rhythms of nature and witnessed the inherent harmony with which she operates, the manner in which all things find their balance and time and place in this harmony. We asked ourselves: was there now a way to prioritise health and prosperity and love and contribution, and design our experience of life from the inside out?