Nature Re-Enchantment

Apr 22

We’ve become disconnected from the natural world around us. However, our dogs – and our dog parks – can help us reconnect to our environment in a more attentive and curious way. When we start to feel a deeper understanding of our place within the larger ecosystem, we can start to care more about protecting it and living symbiotically with all non-human creatures and wildlife.

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About the EPISODE

As part of encouraging us all to expand our creativity around where and how we can go around us, we can take an opportunity to also more broadly consider – and appreciate – our natural surroundings.

Not only has technology diminished our in-person interactions with others, but it’s also taken us further away from the living world. Even when we do go outside, we’re often distracted.

However, our dogs don’t have this problem. They can lead by example to show how we can bring our fascination, curiosity, and excitement back to the wonders of nature.

Outdoor writer and journalist Annette McGivney feels her dogs are able to give her a more focused and heightened awareness of her natural surroundings. When she goes on off-leash walks with her dog Trudy in the woods of Colorado, she feels that “I'm actually plugging in epigenetically to what my body needs most and my nervous system needs most.”

Going with our canine companions to dog parks - or anywhere outside - can foster a new relationship with our environment, if we’re open to it. To best connect with this concept, one should try to be present without distractions, always be curious, and stay aware of all our senses.

“Dog parks can be a piece of public infrastructure that accommodates that idea of non-human residents in our cities,” says journalist and built environment critic Anjulie Rao. “This way of having people appreciate and connect with the reality of your ecosystem in a way that is more meaningful.”

Rao also believes that productive spaces (should) encourage all types of ecological urban life. “It's not just a dog park. It's not just relationships between people,” she adds. “It's actually relationships between people and land. It's this kind of way of reorienting yourself in the world, understanding you're a part of something much bigger.”

While this may seem like it may not apply to everyone, like people in densely populated urban centers,, this idea of nature is larger than you might think.

In fact, it can be as simple as just walking down your block and noticing how branches blow with the wind, the crispy texture of a leaf on the floor, or a squirrel running up a tree.

Dogs have different senses and they move through the world differently than us. Instead of viewing them through our own lens, we should take lessons from them on engaging with nature in a sincere, excited, and pure way.

This idea ties back to the timeless wisdom of Native American tribes, who looked at dogs as a connection between nature and culture, between the wild and time.

Our dog parks, in whatever form they take, can offer an opportunity to bring us back into the natural world.

About the GUEST EXPERTS

Annette McGivney is an award-winning journalist, author, teacher, and meditator. Throughout her life, she has been drawn to the tranquility of nature (and yellow labradors). This has come across in her writing, which aims to inspire people to explore the beautiful nature around them. She also advocates for connecting with nature to heal personal trauma. Every day, McGivney meditates and takes long hikes in the woods with her dog off-leash to improve her mental health and connect with the land.

Anjulie Rao is a journalist and critic, based in Chicago, whose work explores the built environment. In particular, she focuses on the intersections between architecture, landscapes, and cultural change in post-industrial cities. She is also a Lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, an Adjunct faculty member at the University of Illinois Chicago, and previously taught at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Rao’s bylines include Dwell, The Architectural Review, The New York Review of Architecture, and more.

Ed Yong is a British-American science journalist who reports for The Atlantic magazine, where he won a Pulitzer Prize for his COVID pandemic coverage. He has written two New York Times bestsellers: I Contain Multitudes, about the partnerships between animals and microbes, as well as the recent book An Immense World, which examines the sensory world of different animals. He is currently based in Washington D.C. with his corgi, Typo, and his wife.

About the Narrator

Jenna Blum is a New York Times bestselling author of the memoir Woodrow on the Bench. The book focuses on the time that Jenna spent with her ailing black lab in a public park and the community they found. Jenna is based in Boston, teaching at Grub Street Writers, where she has been running master fiction and novel workshops for over 20 years. She is one of Oprah’s Top Thirty Women Writers with her books published in over 20 countries. Her other novels include Those Who Save Us, The Stormchasers, and The Lost Family. You can follow Jenna on Instagram.

About the Company

As It Should Be is a production company and creator behind the Dog Walk Meditation and Dog Save The People podcasts. The company develops original shows for self-release and produces commissioned podcasts for select companies. Content specialties and categories under development include animal advocacy, sustainability, mental health/wellness, and more. The production company also serves as a content studio for SOVRN STATE artist management.