March

In Season 3, my podcast programming this year is simple – love letters to nature. I invite you to join me in this collaborative project to reweave ourselves to the natural world and each other.  Share your love letters with me at fromtheoutsidellc@gmail.com and I will read them on my podcast. How does nature make you feel, how does she sustain you, support you, inspire you, excite you. Share your letters with nature and listen for a response. What wisdom does she offer you? As we profess our deep love and gratitude to our source of life, let us deepen our sense of place, purpose, and sense of belonging.

This month, I welcomed the Spring Equinox and the transition from potential energy to kinetic energy in the natural world.  Plants are emerging from their restful state, pollinators have returned blissfully buzzing and fluttering around the garden, and even my own body is transitioning to a new season of growth. Listen in as I read my March love letter to nature. What moments of joy, love, and gratitude did nature offer you in March?

Transcript

Hi everyone! Welcome to Season 3 and Episode 28 of the From the Outside with Sarah C podcast! I am Sarah Croscutt, the host and creator of this podcast and the owner and facilitator of From the Outside, a series of plant and nature-based lessons that help us to cultivate a deeper relationship to the natural world, ourselves, and each other. In addition, I am a published environmental writer. My work has been included in several anthologies published by Plants and Poetry Journal (www.plantsandpoetry.org) and Wild Roof Journal (www.wildroofjournal.com) You can learn more and find links on my website, www.fromtheoutsidellc.com.

In the past year or so, I have begun to deepen my connection to my Irish and Welsh ancestral roots. Each of us can claim indigeneity to this beautiful planet. Our earliest ancestors lived in kinship with the natural world. Their relationship with nature, their highly regarded source of life, was rooted in respect, reverence and reciprocity.   

We are living in unbelievably uncertain times. Many of us are feeling a deep sense of grief and loss – for humanity and our beloved planet. As I tend my own grief and hold the collective grief of others, I lean into nature, her comfort and wisdom. If we lean into our grief, we feel its entanglement with love. They are intertwined. Love is the wellspring from which we experience joy, gratitude, and grief.  It grows from our profound presence and awareness. Love is the most authentic and creative state of being.  In love, we recognize or “see” each other in a state of deep acknowledgement. In turn, we kindle our circle of belonging and kinship – to nature, to ourselves, and to each other.  What we love we honor and protect, deepening the authentic relationships with others that soothe and support us in times of sorrow. 

 My podcast programming this year is simple – love letters to nature. I invite you to join me in this collaborative project to reweave ourselves to the natural world and each other.  Share your love letters with me at fromtheoutsidellc@gmail.com and I will read your loving words to nature on my podcast. How does nature make you feel, how does she sustain you, support you, inspire you, excite you? Read your letters to nature and listen for a response. What wisdom does she offer you? As we profess our deep love and gratitude to our source of life, let us deepen our sense of place, purpose, and sense of belonging.

March 2025

To my beloved Nature, 

 In March, I thank you for:

1.    The wisdom of the American Beech tree. Her slim, pointed buds are like lasers. She reminds me that I can be focused on growth even with the background noise, whether it be the turmoil and uncertainty in our country or the sound of her leaves shaking in the breeze. 

 2.    The knowledge that new ideas and seeds of potential can from new growth or from the wisdom of an old growth tree. 

 3.    The nourishment and deliciousness from the first, green, tender leaves of arugula and deer tongue lettuce – my first “garden “salad of spring!

 4.    The green of new growth – the leave of tulips, daffodils, crocus and the other varieties of early spring bloomers. Their transparent buds give us a hint to their flower color until they burst open revealing their beautiful, brilliant blooms. 

5.    The warming of the ground lets the soil turn over to unearth the wiggly worms who have dug down in the depths of the dirt over winter.

 6.    My chilly mornings in the garden filled with sunshine and bird songs – catbirds, hawks, barred owls, chickadees, red-winged blackbirds and the chatty mockingbirds spilling the neighborhood tea. 

 7.    The clipping away of last year’s old growth uncovering the fantastical, unfurling fiddlehead ferns – they are one of my favorites. 

 8.    The celebration of a new season as we mark the transition from winter to spring with the Spring Equinox.

 9.    Seeds are the masters of transformation! They are little packets of potential energy – as I hold the different varieties in my hand – lunch box peppers, sun gold tomatoes, carmen peppers, jalapenos, strawflowers, feverfew - each one with its own set of growing instructions, I pause in reverence to render my gratitude for the medicine, beauty, and nourishment that these tiny packets of potential energy will provide. As the harbinger of spring and the growing season to come, these seeds and I will be intertwined in the coming months our energies entangled in a relationship of reciprocity.  

10. Thank you to the long-winded mockingbird perched on the flagpole above me as I weeded my garden – quite the storyteller and I loved our conversation. 

 11. The expeditious energy of spring. We have pivoted from peaceful potential energy of rest to the quickened and conspicuous kinetic energy of growth.  

12. The return of the pollinators – buzzing, fluttering, darting and hovering.

 13. The carpenter bees who greet me at my shed doors. The territorial male sentinels seem to size me up at eye-level to determine if I will be allowed entry.

 14. The daffodil in my daughter’s garden that my grandson says looks like Mitzi the Monkey from the classic Little Bear storybooks. 

15. The big, bright, crescent moon hanging low in the sky just before dawn. It resembles the perfectly placed crescent moon on a page in a child’s bedtime book. 

I encourage you to write your own love letter to nature. It pushes us to pause, grows our gratitude, cultivates our connection to our source of life, and syncs us to the rhythms and cycles of nature. Here are some suggestions to get you started:

o   Write one thing daily you love about nature – that is quite a list by the end of the month!

o   Write about one specific emotion you have felt or experience you have had in nature, or maybe you are trying to cultivate more of a specific state of being in your life, like joy, or gratitude, or love. How can nature guide you?

o   Write about one activity that you do regularly in nature – kayaking, hiking, gardening, even tending your houseplants, or cooking.  How does it make you feel – physically, emotionally, even spiritually? Express your gratitude and love to the natural world for your experience. Expressing our gratitude and love in our simple daily tasks can shift the mundane to magical.

o   Connect to your experiences in nature with your whole body – all your senses – and your breath.

o   Your love letter can take the form of a formal letter, a list bullet points, a poem, even a drawing – however you feel led to express yourself!

o   Share your letter with nature with purpose and intent. Read it aloud

o   Lastly, share your letter with me – I will share it with others on my podcast! You can email me your letter at fromtheoutsidellc@gmail.com. Let your words inspire other listeners! I look forward to hearing from you!

 Upcoming Events

In-person in the Richmond, VA area

 Selfcare Sunday Series continues the first Sunday of the month, 10 am at Powhatan State Park, Powhatan, VA.  Our next gathering is Sunday, April 6th.  We meet at the playground parking lot. The program is free, but a $5 parking fee applies.  Please join us as we connect to nature and each other!

Thank you so much for listening! I encourage you to venture out – to your backyard, a local park, a green space near where you work and spend a few minutes purposefully and intentionally connecting with nature.  Use your whole body – really integrate into your being what you see, smell, hear, and feel.  Spend time with those you love or sit in silence, solitude, and stillness. They are important states of being in nurturing our nature connections. Acknowledge nature’s wisdom and role in your life. Nature shows us how beautiful and transformative growth can be! Remember, we are all connected to the source of life and each other! With that said, you can connect with me through my website www.fromtheoutsidellc.com, or on Instagram @sarahc_outside. Links to podcast, website, publications, webinars, and all the things can be found there! Visit my website for upcoming classes in the local community, latest publications, and details on workshops available for educational settings, professional development, recovery programs, conferences, or other groups. As always, please feel free to reach out!   

Until next time, take care!