Every time someone says: JUST COMMUNE WITH NATURE

mythotica:

All I can think to say is: I would love to but I can’t afford the medical bills!

Nature is a beautiful, wonderful, exquisite thing that is nearly instantly connected to the gods, and can bring us to the same state. That said, it is deadly. I am not going at the poisonous, the tornadoes and earthquakes, and those beasties with big and chompy teeth. For some of us nature can be deadly merely be being in it.

Those with allergies and supressed immune systems, as well as things as photophobia and other such illness exacerbated by nature deal with the ravages of nature on a daily basis without lighning strikes and blizzards. Some, myself marked as one of these, often risk this because we do enjoy the sun on our skin - even if it means horrid welts later and spending the entire night with a horrid headache and sneezing. Others don’t have a choice, can’t risk the cold brought on, or the sinus infection that could develop from such allergies.

Telling someone that they MUST commune with nature to have a pure connection to the divine is sometimes the equivalent to telling them that the only way to know the gods is to swallow poison. For some this is just not an option, and even if many of these illnesses are the result of the sort of horrid treatment of nature and the human body that many of us talk about, dismissing the dangers is cruel. Not to mention dismissing those that can’t worship the ways that others do.

Recently I had someone, once again, tell me that all I needed to connect with the divine - without knowing my pantheon or beliefs beyond the generic pagan title - was to go outside, breathe deep and be at one with nature.

Sorry, I like living - and living pain free too - a bit too much for that.  

This is a good point. I also think what would help is expanding the understood definition of “nature”. Most pagans (and most Western people in general?) seem to equate “nature” with “untouched wilderness” and assume that anything that has been tainted by the presence of humans is not really nature. This is such a silly and false idea it hurts. I can’t begin to tell you how many different species of animals I have spotted in urban areas (skunks, bald eagles, and snapping turtles in Boston; raccoons, walking sticks, and hummingbirds in Baltimore; cormorants, coyotes, and osprey in Buffalo), not to mention the wide variety of plant species (both cultivated and wild-growing) that thrive in urban areas. There is nothing stopping someone from ~communing~ with nature wherever they live. Rats, house centipedes, and dandelions sprouting out of cracks in the sidewalk are just as much “nature” as a pristine ancient growth redwood forest. Devaluing the former in favor of the latter is narrow-sighted and foolish.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I suddenly got the urge to make an offering to the house centipede spirits in the hopes that it will make them happier to keep the cockroaches away from our house by eating them all.

(via thegoldengardens)