Member-only story
Nature taught me what most people will never see
A younger me would spiral into overthinking whenever someone said a critical word about me.
I’d go silent in groups as a kind of protective response.
I’d feel ‘different and misunderstood’ in my chest, like a small wombat had taken up residence there.
I could waste hours and even days in spiralling overthinking.
I also spent years looking for a solution.
I finally found it.
Not in any book or through the breathy encouragements of any councillor.
But on an Autumnal October morning in a London park.
Now, this might sound cheesy, but this is the truth I saw, sitting on that bench:
All of my peace is captured in a falling leaf.
The leaf taught me (reminded me) to take my time. Just like nature always takes its time.
There’s nothing good or bad about a falling leaf.
The tree does as it does, at its own pace.
Just giving its leaves to the soil, before the yearly cycle continues.
Simple. Natural. Beauty.
And I saw I could transfer the same simple philosophy to my own life and insecurities.
