By Chanda Shannon Gorres
In the small Midwestern town where I grew up, the human population was 98% white. The lawns around the houses were 98% impeccably mowed grass, with a flower or two here and there. Surrounding the town were 98% corn and soybean fields. 98% of the town went to either Catholic or Lutheran churches. You could guess by now that the cultural ethos was uniformity and conformity. Still, it merits a deeper contemplation: what does growing up with this kind of visual homogeneity do to the psyche?
My spirit knew there was much more to the world. In college I studied abroad and immersed myself in different local cultures. Of course, I struggled with my own white privilege and implicit bias, and began diligent inner work, yearning to contribute to and live in a world of equality, mutuality, and liberation. Most of this inner work to dismantle my subconscious “isms” had been through growing awareness about human diversity.
NOTE: This reflection is from my experience as a white person, as an invitation for anyone who seeks to relate with nature and dismantle subconscious bias. If you would like to see what some people of color (aka people of the global majority) are organizing around nature connection, please see this link: BIPOC Resources and Anti-racism in Nature. If you’re not sure what your implicit biases are, check out Harvard’s free self-assessments.)
When I began the practice of Forest Bathing, however, even after years of camping, gardening, and hiking, I realized that I still lacked significant awareness of nature’s diversity. By looking intimately at plants and creatures of the environment, and learning how to engage them with all my senses, a door opened to the intricate and incredible ways that diverse beings live in relationship. While there are facts about the vast number of beetles that live on the planet (350,000 species), until I gazed upon dozens of uniquely colored and sized beetles crawling right in front of my eyes, I didn’t feel awe bursting in my chest. How long have you sat and closely studied one creature or plant? Zoos might show us a large number of different animals, but not how they co-exist in interdependence. So when I moved into a prairie with hundreds of different organisms doing their own unmediated things all around me, I peeled back another layer of how sheltered my life had been. Daily breathing within a native ecosystem unveiled a whole other world of truth.
And then one day I did an experiment. Because in the town where I'd grown up, there were also a lot of the same trees. I wondered that day, for the first time, how I subconsciously thought about trees' cultural belongings. I wondered how I thought about the inner life of these giant, life-giving beings who have supported humanity in so many ways (including shade, food, building material, art palettes, play equipment, and more). I wondered if my subconscious racism could also be embedded in the way I first learned to relate with trees. I wondered if my associations or assumptions about the trees I lived amongst were also a part of my implicit white dominant thinking. So, I decided to experiment with how I thought about trees’ essences and bodies.
Guiding myself in a nature meditation, I explored my first-crafted impressions and what it would be like if I consciously shifted them. It changed my view more than I had imagined. Now I have an internal practice of shifting my lens toward trees and plants. That’s all I’ll say here, because I made a recording of the guided meditation in case you seek to explore and dismantle your subconscious racism in relationship to plants.
Guided Meditation on Plants: Exploring Our Implicit Bias
If you want to try it, find a place amongst trees or plants where you can sit uninterrupted for 20 minutes. The first 15 minutes of the meditation will engage your main body senses, a necessary transition from active thought into slower, more relaxed mindfulness and bodyfulness. Then the last five minutes will offer you prompts to explore any implicit associations that may arise in this liminal space. I’d love to hear how you experience this~ just reach out!
Shannon Gorres, MDiv, MA, is a cherag in the SRI, nature therapy guide, and board-certified chaplain. A holistic counselor, Shannon can be reached at www.DivineNatureTherapy.com.