Vivian reflects on her time spent hunting for mushrooms and the principles she’s been inspired to apply to life.  

I celebrated my birthday recently by joining a beginner’s mushroom hunting session. I wanted to do something unusual, to spend quality time in nature and start my next year in a way that felt meaningful and special.

During the experience, our guide shared a few principles that I thought were incredibly useful to apply to life:

1. You can’t miss what’s yours. This was the guide’s reply to our many questions about whether we’d find mushrooms (and where and how and how many…). It was a liberating reminder that in all the trying and searching – for a job, a partner, success, and so on – it’s sometimes best to let go of control; to trust that if it’s for you, you will find it (or perhaps it will find you…).

⁠2. It’s not what you see, but how you search. The process of searching is itself invaluable; we have to pay attention. Mushrooms are easy to miss because of their colouring and because they grow in the depths. Sometimes you you see something once and think it’s not for you, but if you look with fresh eyes, you find what you were looking for. By digging deeper, we find the treasure.

3. ⁠With small steps, you can go far! “One step at a time” is a constant motto of mine. This is how we can both walk in a forest and do the rest of life. 

4. ⁠You may start by using your feet, but you will finish with your soul. When we become tired, whether mushroom hunting in a forest or living our lives, we have to activate our internal resources to continue. We are much stronger that we think we are and our minds/souls can be the compass when we feel our bodies wanting to give up.

5. Be grounded and connect with nature. It was nourishing, and so good for my soul to explore on foot and tap into my senses. [How’s this? Wanted to add detail to being grounded/connecting w nature.] We are creatures of nature too, and many of our skills – including those we use in our city lives – are our natural instincts.

6. There is beauty in the little things. The dappled sunlight, breathing fresh air, the stillness of the forest… these made my heart full. In appreciating the small things we feel more inspired.

7. There is so much to be grateful for… like eating food that you have collected yourself. Anything you put effort into and achieve. With gratitude, we acknowledge the small but significant moments and successes in our lives.

The natural world has so much to teach us. What a blessing to have had this opportunity to walk and explore and learn… and all on my birthday!

What have you learned in your experiences with nature? We’d love to hear more – simply leave a comment below.