Earth day is one of those lovely holidays...that represents stuff we should be doing year round! It reminds me a little bit of Valentine's day. There is nothing wrong with having a holiday devoted to something like this, but it is a bit hypocritical to only think about the Earth on Earth day (or your beloved only on Valentine's).
As a Pagan, I feel like we are more inclined to want to have regular ways of connecting with the Earth. But so many of us are busy, or we live in places where we don't have access to large expanses of wild nature. This is where I think micro-practices come in!
When I think of micro-practices, I'm thinking of things that can be done in a few minutes or less, things that don't take really anything in the way of preparation, and that make use of common things you may already have around you.
Sometimes, this becomes a form of mindfulness. We all eat, so why not take a moment at the start of a meal to think about where your food comes from and to appreciate the plants and animals that contributed to your existence. Recycling, composting or putting food trimmings outside for wild critters to eat can all be ways of staying connected to nature and the world around us.
One of my micro-practices involves just being aware of the world outside my windows. In the morning, I open the window and look out back and just see what the world is like that day (it is a conscious moment I take, and I do say a little chant to welcome the day, but I make sure that I actually see what the weather is doing and what the field out back looks like). I do something similar when I go down to check the mail. I tend to think of it as 'tasting the air' though I don't actually taste anything, but I will take a deep breath or two and see what the air feels like that day (it's kind of fascinating how you can be in the same place every day, but it just feels so different based on weather/season/time)
A fun set of micro-practices revolves around things we might have done as a child. Picking a dandelion puff and making a wish, admiring a pretty flower, watching a bug crawl across a leaf or listening to the sound of rain (dancing in it is also wonderful!) One thing I have always loved doing is searching for interesting rocks (or leaves or sticks or seeds....), and this is also a great way to bring a little bit of nature inside with you.
Honestly, I think a lot of it comes down to opening yourself to curiosity about the world around you. I feel like we have so many demands on us, for our time and attention, and much of it is on modern (electronic) things, that shifting our focus to natural things feels counterintuitive, but we can absolutely combine the two! Maybe you want to take a picture of something natural every day, and you make it your background on your phone, or share it online (maybe even encouraging other people to share their own pics in response).
Touching things is a big thing for me, even though I have real issues with my hands being dirty. It's funny, because I don't typically mind touching things in nature (with the understanding that when I'm done, I'll wash my hands...it just works for my brain lol). But there is something really moving about touching plants or even simply letting your bare feet connect to dirt. I feel like we are so disconnected to nature, that this simple practice of touching the bark of a tree or letting a butterfly land on your finger almost feels like coming home.
The big thing to remember is that none of these practices need to be big! In fact, it's so much harder to commit to something big, but most of us can find some micro-practice that we enjoy. Nature is all around us, even if we live in a big city. We can find a patch of dirt, look for plants (because they will find a way to grow in cracks in the sidewalk or any little patch of earth they can find), watch insects or urban critters (watching city birds is nifty, seeing how they have adapted to us and how we changed their world), and there is pretty much always weather to deal with.
So why not use this Earth day as the start of a new practice...of micro-practices! Come up with a list of things you think you might enjoy, and try a few! The absolutely cool thing about micro-practices is that they either take very little time on their own or they layer on something you are already doing, so once you start thinking about ways to add them into your life and looking for places that you could be a bit more aware and act a touch more intentionally....you realize just how connected you are. We aren't separate from the Earth, we just sometimes forget that nature is literally all around us and entwined in everything we do.
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