The following excerpt is from a recent interview with Jin on methods city dwellers can use to get closer to nature.
Question: For those living in the city with high rises and very little open space, they can feel very disconnected from nature. What are some of the ways city dwellers can reconnect with nature?
Jin’s Reply: To reconnect with nature, you need to get closer to nature. Thus you’ll need to find pockets of nature in the city in which you live.
The best place to start is looking for trails and parks within the city. Check maps and do internet searches to find parks and trails—you might be surprised how many you find. If none exist in the city, look for some just outside the city or start a project within your city to clean up an area or start a park.
Even if you can’t find any parks near your house, seek out trees that line city streets. Spend time examining their forms and interrelationships since they possess most of nature’s wisdoms. All trees possess the qualities of fractals, symmetry, and returning to the source so let their wisdom educate and enthrall.
Because so many great artists derived their inspiration from nature, go to art museums as well. Seeing great artists express their awe of nature is also uplifting and another means to build an appreciation of nature.
Man’s creations of stores, buildings, roads and institutions reflect nature’s patterns. Studying how things are city structures are organized provides an interesting insight into man’s world, but also a nice reminder how closely we are connected with nature. To jumpstart your appreciation of this, check out my book Encyclopedia Centerpath.