In 2025, in some distress, I asked the mountains why they hadn’t called me yet. It struck me then that it had been ages since I’d visited them. They took a year and a half, but they did call me recently.
While I was preparing for my trip through Kaziranga and the hilly roads of Arunachal Pradesh, my mentor Neelam suggested I treat the wilderness portion as a medicine walk, and ask nature to show me, with ease and joy, how to welcome Her bounty and magic into my life.
I, however, decided the entire trip would be a walk. I would ask the mountains, the forests, the one-horned rhino and the sky to share their messages with me.
I wasn’t expecting what I received. As always, nature was kind. It understood the currents running beneath my question, and it gave me far more insight into life than I had asked for.
I’m sharing these nuggets here, hoping they find you when you need them.
1. Come to nature to unmask
When I’m by the sea, a quiet usually descends. The inner chatter falls away and I become a child again, playing in the water, watching the sun shimmer on the surface, smiling for no reason.
This time, nature showed me something more. Around Her, I don’t just feel boundless. The pretence and the masks fall away too. I remember who I am, and I forget to be self-conscious about taking up space.
2. Nothing exists in silos
Nature keeps its own time. Nothing is rushed, and still, what needs to happen happens. Even in the stillness of the forest there is movement, there is music. Everything is collaboration. Each thing depends on several other things.
The idea of independence, of not needing the ecosystem around me and the dread that I am alone or don’t have anyone begins to seem like nonsense.
3. Change as control
The mountains look unchangeable, yet they are always changing. I’ve feared change because it feels like losing control. But maybe it’s the other way around. I only change things when the status quo has stopped working.
So finding new or different ways to do things is really a way of taking the wheel back.
4. The antidote to self-doubt is innate wisdom
Like nature, I carry an innate wisdom. When I doubt myself, I can go to the trees. I can look to the clouds, to the people around me, to the stories that inspire me. I go to nature to remember what I already know.
5. What will aid my life?
Nature doesn’t wait for permission. A plant doesn’t ask whether it may grow on a tree, or whether it will cause harm. If the conditions are right, it grows. If the host tree dies in the process, so be it. Nature holds no grudges, and it makes no mistakes. There is only what aids life.
So I ask myself: what will aid my life right now? It’s a simple and a useful question when a big decision is looming.
6. Life as a mountain road
Life, like a mountain road, goes up and down. Sometimes I’m climbing when I’m really heading down. Sometimes I’m descending while preparing to climb. Either way, I reach where I’m meant to. All I have to do is trust, pause, enjoy, and keep going anyway.
7. Travelling with women older than me
I was the youngest in the group. Watching these women give absolutely zero fucks showed me how many fucks I had been giving. The way they laughed, complained and made everyone feel included left me feeling loved and comforted. Their lack of judgment lifted my confidence to the stratosphere.
One last message from Mother Nature:“All in its own time, sweetheart. Stop trying to control the process. Simply be in the process.”
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