A chance encounter with Nature Journaling

Yesterday, while out walking on a Costa Rican beach, I met a wandering “nature journaler” documenting his natural surroundings through sketches and words. As his Youtube channel shows, nature journaling involves observing and recording plants, animals, landscapes, and our sensory experiences of the outdoors.

I showed him my own notebooks filled with passages penned during my morning and evening rituals. We discussed favorite pens, the perils of digital distractions, and personal benefits from this reflective habit.

Our conversation turned to society’s excessive self-focus. With constant identity broadcasting across social platforms, are we losing connection to community purpose? I brought up my favorite prayer questionably attributed to St Francis which reminds us that living meaningfully starts with self-care and compassion. “Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console...For it is in giving that one receives.”

Perhaps it is not selfishness driving individuals inward these days but rather a longing for meaning. What better compass than our planet itself?

I welcome any feedback or experiences with contemplative outdoor practices bringing balance amidst modern disorientation! Finding integrated meaning often starts alone in stillness but culminates together in contribution.