Week 8 - Religion In The Forest

This week, the class was lucky enough to spend half the lecture among the trees by The Lakes at UQ. Stepping outside the classroom was refreshing and enjoyable. It allowed time to escape the busyness of university life which is usually bogged down with assignments and endless amounts of time spent indoors. 

The results of the time spent by the lake is summarised in this poem I wrote: 

The light warms my skin and dances on my eyelids

The trees absorb and provide me with the air I breath

From the dead and decomposed I sit on.

The lake thrives as a metropolis of life;

The dragonfly buzzes in my peripherals

While the water hen stalks and ponders my company.

My experience resonates with Bron Taylor's (2010) point on 'green religion'. 'Green religion' is more than nature religion in that it is "often derived from a Darwinian understanding that all forms of life have evolved from a common ancestor and are therefore related" (Taylor in Klassen 2012, p.75). As seen in the picture to the right, observing the nature by the lake made me acknowledge that the elements I could see were playing a role in keeping the whole ecosystem and each individual element alive. 

References: 

Klassen C. 2012. Avatar, Dark Green Religion, and the Technological Construction of Nature. Cultural Studies Review 18(2): 74-86 .