Never Alone in Nature

We all experience difficult moments at times.

Moments when nothing interests us, when everything feels constraining.

We feel like no one appreciates us, that no one really wants our company.

In short, we're consumed by the unpleasant feeling that our existence has no meaning.

Yet humans are social animals. This is even the secret of our remarkable evolution.

We need others to give meaning to our lives.

Humans and nature

We don't really know how it all began.

We know that humans emerged from nature. They had to develop efficient ways to move around to find food. They had to explore different food sources when drought came, face new climates, learn about new flora and fauna. They figured out how to protect themselves from predators, find shelter to survive.

Their evolution into a unique species is the result of countless accidents, mutations, crossbreeding and experiences related to their environment, but also invisible factors.

The collective brain

Humans developed communication methods that allow them to use the life experience of their peers to solve problems that overwhelm them and thus overcome challenges related to their survival. We're talking here about knowledge that couldn't be accumulated over a single lifetime being shared to form a kind of network that grows as we develop connections with those around us.

Culture

Culture is a repertoire of know-how conducive to mastering a given territory. Culture answers this specific question: how do we survive here?

Without the ancestral knowledge accumulated over centuries by Indigenous peoples, the first settlers wouldn't have survived long and you wouldn't be living the comfortable life you have today.

Of course, culture encompasses an entire communication system, concepts, methods, but also rituals and customs that over time, through transmission, become ways to create a unifying sense of belonging among individuals who were fundamentally different.

The conquering ape

How did this ape, which had no particular physical aptitude or characteristics, come to adopt a way of life that compromises the balance of the entire planet?

Perhaps because along the way, humans became so distant from each other that they forgot they came from the same source.

The knowledge network they built became more complex. The knowledge they share is no longer connected to their survival in nature, but to

Over time

Loneliness doesn't exist. As long as we witness life.

Loneliness is an illusion maintained by a person who hasn't found themselves yet.

How can we be alone when we carry the entire history of the world in our cells.

When all it takes is going outside into nature to remember that we're still part of the world.

That this place is ours regardless of where we come from.

Your values and opinions don't matter.

Your job and the salary you earn from it don't matter.

The language you speak or the religion you practice doesn't matter.

Being outside in the fresh air is your true nature.

That's why it's the place where it's hardest to feel alone.