Forgotten wisdom of nature
- Richard
- Sep 18
- 3 min read
Nature provides everything: air to breathe, water to drink, food to live. Yet it's not just that that moves us, but also the moments of silence and wonder. A landscape that embraces you, an unexpected encounter, the feeling of being one with nature. What is it that makes nature so deeply touch us, time and again?
Nature, of course, provides more than just food, water, and warmth. It also offers us healing powers. Plants, roots, minerals—age-old allies in healing our bodies. I'm proud to have worked for fourteen years as a director at Weleda, a company that fully relies on this natural wisdom. There, we produced, and still do, 100% natural medicines. These remedies are aimed at healing, not at treating symptoms that often cause side effects, which in turn require new medicines. They are based on knowledge that is sometimes thousands of years old.
We have more and more knowledge and we know less and less
And yet… we humans often want more. More security, more stuff, more comfort. We don't just take what's necessary, but pile up supplies, build houses bigger than we can handle, and fill closets beyond our means. We grab as if nature were inexhaustible.
Less is often enough
Along the way, we realize how little is actually needed. A small supply of food, water in the tank, the warmth of a blanket, and a view that never gets old. Life in the camper forces us to be simple. Every liter of fuel, every bag of groceries, every piece of trash is visible and tangible.
“Nature speaks softly, but who listens?”
Just watching
Sometimes we can gaze at nature endlessly. Without wanting or needing to do anything, just simply observing all that beauty. Orcas swimming by, reindeer migrating over the hills, moose secretly peering at you from the forest, curious foxes, bears foraging at night, sea otters playing in the waves, a stoat prowling the rocks, and so much more. Animals instinctively know which plant to eat for a toothache or which herbs help with another ailment. An inner knowing that we humans have largely lost. For us, these are the moments when life naturally feels simpler, when it is enough to receive without having to give anything in return.
Not more Catholic than the Pope
At the same time, we're no more Catholic than the Pope. We travel in a diesel campervan that pollutes the air. That bothers me. It bothers me that I contribute just as much to that pollution, just because I desperately want to travel, because I desperately want to live on the road. How can I look myself in the mirror? It's an uncomfortable realization, but facing it honestly feels better than pretending it doesn't exist.
Groceries
We simply do our grocery shopping at the supermarket. And there, somewhere between the fjords and the mountains, the shelves are filled with products from… the Netherlands. Apples from the Betuwe, cheese from North Holland, tomatoes from "our" greenhouses that we've left thousands of kilometers behind. It sometimes feels almost absurd: being so far away, in the midst of the rugged silence, and then suddenly encountering Dutch products in the shops.
Smaller than before
And yet, we feel our ecological footprint is smaller than when we lived in a house. No endless attics and sheds to fill, no overcrowded schedules demanding energy, more stuff, more everything. Life in our Globus 2 shows us that less is often enough, and that enough can even be abundance.
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Consciousness and gratitude
Perhaps that's the key: not striving for perfection, but for (self)awareness. Recognizing that nature sustains us and that we always have the choice to give back. That can be small: picking up trash along a fjord, consciously choosing local food, or simply being still and grateful.
Enough is abundance
Because whoever is grateful needs nothing more.
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