Natural - RESOURCES
We All Need Access To The Healing Aspects Of Nature
Technological advances have made it possible to practically live inside virtual realities. Virtual reality can be engaging and positive, unless we lose sight of the natural world. Our happiness and survival are more dependent upon nature than most of us realize.
Nature heals. It rejuvenates. It deepens and calms, allowing us to reconnect with ourselves so we can live grounded, authentic lives. The natural world offers us the antidote to stress and burnout, gives us perspective, thrills us with beauty and wonder, and makes life worth living.
Let’s not lose sight of the real reality. Because nothing will matter if we lose that. After all, we are nature. So let’s honor and protect it. Doing so is only natural.
“There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture in the lonely shore, there is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar; I love not Man the less, but Nature more.”—Lord Byron
“Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.”—John Lubbock
“The further we distance ourselves from the spell of the present, explored by our senses, the harder it will be to understand and protect nature's precarious balance, let alone the balance of our own human nature.”—Diane Ackerman
“Just being surrounded by bountiful nature, rejuvenates and inspires us.”
Here are some excellent organizations working to preserve and protect nature.
The Nature Conservancy is a global environmental nonprofit working to create a world where people and nature can thrive. Founded in the US 1951, it has grown to become one of the most effective and wide-reaching environmental organizations in the world. Thanks to more than a million members and the dedicated efforts of a diverse staff and more than 400 scientists, they impact conservation in 79 countries and territories across six continents.
The Heritage Conservancy is a community based organization dedicated to the preservation and protection of significant open spaces, natural resources, and our historic heritage. A champion of conservation best practices, Heritage Conservancy believes that everyone is responsible for stewardship and seeks to enlighten, engage, and empower others to help achieve this mutual vision. Jonathan knows these folks. They are great advocates for our environment.
Environment News Service (ENS) is the original international daily wire service of the environment. Established in 1990 by Editor in Chief Sunny Lewis and Managing Editor Jim Crabtree, the company is independently owned and operated under the direction of the founders. They provide late-breaking news of the environment from across the United States and around the world, providing fact-based news presented without bias.
Carfree is a delightful solution to the vexing problem of urban automobiles
“Walk in nature and feel the healing power of the trees.”
Clean Air Council Protects everyone’s right to breathe clean air.
Appalachian Mountain Club, founded in 1876, promotes the protection, enjoyment, and understanding of the mountains, forests, waters, and trails of America’s Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. They encourage people to experience, learn about, and appreciate the natural world. Jonathan once hiked the Appalachian Trail for two months and 800 miles with the assistance of the AMC.
National Parks Conservation Association protects and enhances America's National Park System for present and future generations.
“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”
National Park Foundation was chartered by Congress in 1967 and rooted in a legacy that began more than a century ago, when private citizens from all walks of life took action to establish and protect our national parks. Today, the National Park Foundation carries on that tradition as the only national charitable nonprofit whose mission is to directly support the National Park Service.
The Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks studies, educates, speaks, and acts for the preservation and protection of the National Park System and mission-related programs of the National Park Service. The Coalition is an active and respectful partner with the National Park Service and other like-minded organizations.
“Come to the woods for here is rest.”
Here’s PBS Ken Burns’ The National Parks resources page listing National Park advocacy groups.
Protect Nature Now’s mission is to raise public awareness, generate political urgency around regulations, and build global opposition to the release of genetically modified microbes, protecting nature’s gene pool.