Leafing Through: Healing Dissonance Through Nature-Based Narrative Collage
- Laura A. Weber
- 29 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Synchronicity and healing through Nature-based Storytelling? Is that possible? It happened the other day - a confluence at a coffee shop among three awesome women - a massage therapist/reiki master/death doula, a Nature-loving hospice volunteer coordinator, and a Nature-based Solutions (NbS) change management consultant concerned about a beleaguered planet, all interested in eco-therapies and holistic health for Nature-deficit disorders. We began telling stories of our love of the natural world, sharing anecdotes from professional and personal experience, laughing a lot. We found we had a lot in common. Stories converged. Hearts connected. What happened?
Something: Ground-breaking. Soul-shifting. Energizing. Healing. We all felt it.
Just from "Leafing Through."
Imaginations ignited, collaborative enterprises were explored, feelings of loss and fear surfaced, and were held and honored, while energies of co-creativity and hope surged. We were finding healing and resilience together, weaving our stories, and finding common ground while co-creating strategies for sustainable, Nature-immersive practice and resilience for ourselves and the ones we serve and love. The energy was palpable, centering us and rooting our purpose, galvanizing our mission.
Synchronicity of narratives, or "Kairomancy," as Robert Moss called it, is the art of weaving together constellations of meaning from synchronous experiences or events. It's paying attention when life's moments converge. Polish management sociologist Monika Kostera introduced the idea of Narrative Collage as a research method in 2006. (source) Narrative Collage uses fictive stories where imagination plays a central role, to elucidate key facets of knowledge generally inaccessible in matter-of-fact discourse, like falling in love, feeling forgiven, or capturing the experience of a full moon cresting on the horizon over a sparkling sea. Narrative Collage is especially helpful for co-creating paradigms or practices that are not yet in existence, in other words for catalyzing imaginative solutions.
Shift. What would it look like if Nature told the stories woven for meaning and healing? What if we learned from Nature's own narratives how to co-create imaginative solutions for healing planetary dis-ease? We might call it "Leafing Through," a Nature-based Narrative Collage woven through the medium of Nature's own body, Nature's optics, fragrances, textures, tastes, and sounds.
How might such a process flow?
First, we focus on a Nature-related theme that captures our collective attention. It might be an awesome sunrise, or a full moon, sea-breeze, owl song or wolf-call, Monarch fields or pine groves. Or it might be the aftermath of a forest fire or hurricane, and recovering from that trauma. It might be seasonal shifts and coping skills Nature has for navigating change and robust communication systems for maintaining connection. It might be ecosystem decline, global warming, biodiversity and habitat loss, or Nature's proclivities for energy conservation and sustainable waste management, or Nature's ineluctable beauty, attraction, and resilience.
Next, we listen while Nature tells stories. Where and how are we captivated by Nature's dramatic unfolding? Dawn and dusk might be potent story-hours. Notice: Seasonal changes, "normal" and extraordinary natural events, diverse species or phenomena that captivate us, or severe weather systems, prevailing habitat loss, or environmental degradation from human waste, excess, neglect, or destruction, alongside human-led conservation and natural recreation practices that seek to heal Earth's wounds are especially germane. If we practice immersive full-sensory awareness in Nature through Shinrin-Yoku (Forest Bathing), natural sound therapy, Nature photography, art, poetry, music, or other Nature-rich practices, it will help us attune to Nature's cadence, rhythm, and inflection. Note how Nature's stories affect us - not just intellectually, but socially, emotionally, and spiritually.
Then, we arrange or configure the constellation of stories. What are the potent images, resonances, and synergies that reverberate throughout Nature's stories? What is living quietly all around us, or screaming or crying in anguish, or seeking companionship, or rejoicing and playful? What energies of Nature are emphasized in certain bioregions, geologic formations, oceanic and riparian bodies, forests and wetlands, prairies and savannas, urban areas, green spaces and heat islands, coastal plains and mountain valleys? What colors are receding, and which ones pop in our GIS mapping layers and why? What images, textures, sounds (or lack thereof), fragrances (or noxious odors), or tastes (or toxins) really compel us to stay engaged, to not look away or ignore? What engages us at a deep level? Where do we feel a synchronicity, a shared energy?
Finally, we synthesize by sorting through - "Leafing Through" - and co-creating a Story of the wider "We." Humanity, as a trustworthy curator of Nature's Narrative Collage, works to construct an interpretation and collaborative retelling of a Story WITH Nature as primary author. It is a collaborative narrative collage that respects the integrity of Nature's own stories and our grasp of their relevance and import - not solely as they relate to human concerns - but for and with Nature's own welfare and healing in mind and heart.
"Leafing Through" can be a potent way of foraging for meaning and truth in the detritus of decay, decimation, and loss that is at work in the natural world. It can also be the soul-seeded germination of the future of a living biosphere - the Story of Anima Mundi, the wider "We" - that can lead to healing and wholeness for planetary dissonance.
Ssshhh. Listen. What stories are emerging? Let's Leaf Through, and find out.