Noticing Nature in the Everyday

When you think about connecting with nature, it’s easy to picture grand overlooks with sweeping mountain views, entire weekends spent paddling on a serene lake, or long hikes through the forest where time melts away. These can be wonderful experiences, but they’re not the only way to appreciate and enjoy the natural world.

Nature is already here – woven into the everyday. And sometimes connecting with nature starts by noticing it.

Try paying attention to the world outside your door. Notice the milkweed growing along the roadside, the way the setting sun catches in the leaves of a maple, rain patters against the apartment window, or a butterfly pausing just for a second atop a flower.

Such moments can be easy to overlook because they’re familiar. But the more we practice noticing nature, the more we realize these moments are anything but ordinary.

Want to get started? Never fear, no equipment is required – curiosity alone is more than enough!

Walk the same route each morning and observe what changes from week to week. Which flowers bloom first? What bugs are awake when you are? Which birds visit your path in the summer but have disappeared by autumn? Watch the clouds while waiting for your morning coffee to brew. Keep an eye out for mushrooms after a summer rain.

Nature is constantly changing, even when our routine stays the same. Once you’ve watched a pair of swallows return to the same nest each spring or eagerly awaited the first fireflies of the season, those experiences become a part of your story.

You don’t need to summit the highest peak or travel to a picture-perfect destination to experience wonder. Whether your day allows for 10 minutes before work or an afternoon at one of CLC’s public lands, there’s always an opportunity to slow down and notice. Many times, nature is waiting for us in the shade of a nearby tree.

The world is always inviting us to look a little closer.