There is no ideal place

We don’t have to go somewhere to find nature—it’s already here.

I woke up this morning and the birds a were singing. Not a huge number of birds, but Robins, a Woodpecker, a Cardinal pair, sparrows and a wren.
I went down and sat on the couch looking out at the dogwood flowers. I could see the power lines through them, and the road, which was quiet now though it’s usually busy.
Sometimes a desire comes over me to run off to the woods, to live in a tiny house without anyone else around. The unspoken thought is that then finally I could be around nature.
But it’s here! Sure there are trucks driving by, but there are birds nesting in the shrubs, countless insects flying around, and new plants popping up. Even in New Haven, I rescued ten tiny native bees from the greenhouse, and there are snakes, salamanders, and who knows what else in the gardens.
We don’t have to run away and settle the scraps of forests that still exist, we can make them where we are. We can reforest and re-wild our world without having to meet some sort of locational criteria.
I am thinking about people who live in apartments. Maybe there is more nature in the yard than I’m imagining. If not, I’ve heard of planting a tree and just telling your landlord it was there, or asking to grow a garden, as I did at our old apartment. (Or don’t even plant a tree—protect a baby oak that pops up in the lawn). Or just put out a chair or hammock and see what you can see. Interesting life is everywhere, no matter how boring some people try to make their landscapes.