What I Learned From The Wild - By Tianna Thakur

Nature is a beautiful thing. Nature gives us the very things we need to survive and how are we repaying it? By destroying its trees for our selfish wishes. Nature gives us everything it has and therefore we learn our first lesson: Don’t be selfish, even if the person or thing you are generous too doesn’t pay you back. Nature is a stress reliever. These days lots of squishy balls and fidget spinners and more are being sold, primarily because of how much stress we are facing because of this pandemic. But do we really need these expensive toys? Or was a hidden stress reliever right under our nose all along?

Sometime, just go to a forest or field. Just close your eyes and listen to all the sounds around you. The birds chirping, leaves rustling and the sounds of bees buzzing around, collecting nectar. If you are patient, within no time you will find yourself sleeping. That is because nature is peaceful. It does not have any anger in it, nor sadness, nor stress. That leads us to our second lesson: Sometimes even the simplest of things can solve your problems, even though they might seem like they can’t.  Nature is in a constant cycle.

When a beloved family member or a close friend of ours dies, we feel bad right? Sometimes we might refuse to eat or stay locked in our room the entire day. But do you think that happens when a plant or animal dies? Do you think that the grass stops growing and the trees stop releasing oxygen? NO! Because Nature is in a constant cycle and let’s face it, remains of plants and animals make pretty good fertiliser! Now just because I said that, don’t go around killing plants and animals, that is not a good thing and deaths is not good either. But that doesn’t mean we will brood over it! And the important life lesson we learn from this is: When the times comes, let it go! Nature has low expectations and so should you!

When a bird makes a nest for itself, it does not expect it to be awesome and it is ok with a shabby nest made out of twigs. But is that the same with humans? Humans usually have specific rules for themselves like “I have to be allowed to watch T.V and play games all day on my birthday!” or “I have to have extra cheese on my pizza!”. These are rules that we think we have to maintain.  But its not like the world will end if these rules are not maintained right? Therefore, if these rules are not maintained, we usually get upset We learn that: If you want to be happy, lower your expectations!  Good things follow bad things.

Whenever the sky is stormy and there is a downpour of rain, do we not see a rainbow afterwards? Without the rain, there would be no rainbow, right? That means without the bad, there can be no good. So, thank you weather for teaching us that. After bad things, good things will follow. How often do we interact with animals? Not just your pets but animals that live in the wild! We have separated ourselves from the animals with building, fences and cages. However, this was not the case in the past. Animals are just as important as us humans.  We learn to be patient. Animals are always slow and steady. They do things at their own pace, and don’t rush like maniacs like sometimes humans do when we are in a rush. If you have waited for hours for your dog/cat to eat, or to do their business, you would know what I am talking about! Take a deep breath, calm down and do it at your own pace! The entire world is at a specific routine and there is no changing that routine!

Let’s face it, sometime in life, we worry about our future right? What house I should buy, what will happen in the future and so on. We spend so much time worrying about the future that we forget to live in the NOW! Carpe Diem! Live in the now! Everything has a balance. You can not eat pizza all day, right? We would want to but that means that we are not getting the right nutrients that we need for our daily survival. Similarly, we can not have too many herbivores because the herbivores would eat all the plants, soon they would have no food for themselves and they would die. Without herbivores, carnivores have nothing to eat except each other. When they do that, only omnivores are left and they too would have no food and starve and die. Then humans will have nothing to eat and soon they will starve and die too. Clearly, we need a balance of everything. Life is like bicycle, in order to keep moving, you must keep your balance! 

We all are the same, one way or the other. Dolphins speak to each other in a language. Elephants follow each other. Ants make big anthills with carefully planned tunnels, these and many many habits of animals prove that animals are actually very much like humans! Humans think themselves inferior sometimes, but some instances prove that animals can be smarter than humans! Give everyone a shot at something, they could be better than you.

Respect your leaders. Moving forward and being innovative is great, but sometimes elders are better at things. Elephant herds with older elephants have higher survival rates because the elder elephants can recognize the signs of drought or other disasters and situations. When the power goes out, and our phones and torches too, then who comes up to us with a candle or lantern to give us light? Our elders, because sometimes when everything fails, the old methods work! Respect your elders, their methods work too.  

Listen carefully to each and every word. Animals usually have very sensitive ears and can hear every tiny bit of noise. They usually observe and react to something whereas us humans sometimes don’t hear or see the full picture and miss out some points when we read or hear anything. And for all you know, that point you missed could be the most important thing ever! Listen to each and every word, each letter is important. We must be united. In the wild, there are different groups. The swarms of bees, flocks of birds, prides of lions and more. But if a natural disaster occurs, they will all stick together.

I remember watching a video where a flood was occurring but an injured bird was not able to fly and go away from that place so it landed on a dog and the dog swam across the water and took the bird to a safe place. Being able to set aside our differences and work together is a very important skill we should all have, especially in the pandemic times. Humans have proved to be united during this time, seeing as many groups of people are helping quarantined people get food, water and shelter and so on but there are still some of us who could learn a bit or two. So this is what I learned from The Wild!

What about you?