How speaking with nature will enrich your life.

Welcome back to 🌿🌙 THE EARTHY WRITER: My Rewilding Year’ 🐝✨

This is episode six in which I’ll share with you my lessons from learning how to communicate with animals and nature. 

In this rewilding-episode you’ll learn:

• About the incredible work animal communicators are doing
• About examples of magical animal encounters I had myself whilst working as a safari guide in Southern Africa
• How communicating with nature will enrich your life
• Mistakes to avoid when reaching out to the natural world
• About an unexpected lesson I learnt while doing this work
• A step-by-step guide to animal communication for beginners

About your host:

Hi 👋, I’m Gisele Stein. I’m a novelist and a nature-lover, writing feel-good women’s fiction with a little magic and places like characters from my cosy cabin on Wadandi Boodja in Western Australia. 

All Episode Resources:

• Book Recommendation from the Episode: Speaking with nature.
• Find all books I can recommend on animal communication in my REWILDING LIBRARY.
• Instagram Accounts to follow: Kara Daniels, @deep.root.connections / Alex Andersen @pettalkwithalex
• YouTube Documentary: Anna Breytenbach and “Diabolo/ Spirit”, the black Leopard.
• For more rewilding content and inspiration, you may like to follow me on Pinterest.

FYI: The YouTube videos are currently unlisted. That means only people with the link can find it. You can watch new episodes here on my website, share the link with others or open it in the YouTube app.

Listen on Spotify instead!

Episode Transcript 🇬🇧:

Happy full moon, everyone and thank you for choosing to spend some time with me again today.

As always, before we begin today’s episode, I would like to acknowledge the Wadandi people, the traditional custodians of the land I’m speaking from today.

And today is the second episode of April and that means it is time to share some lessons.

So, my rewilding challenge for the month was communicating with animals, or communicating with nature. And before I share with you what I’ve learned, I wanted to level the playing field so to speak, so that we’re all on the same page: When I say ‘communicating with animals’ or ‘communicating with nature’, I don’t mean sort of teaching your dog to sit or saying hello to your cat when you come home from work.
I think we can all agree that these things are important, and the cat or the dog understands what you mean and there’s definitely a reaction, and we can definitely agree that these verbal communications and also our body language is incredibly important to communicate… well, not just with other species, but also with humans.

Speaking with nature: A deeper level of communication

So those things are important, but I want to talk about a deeper level of communication that animal communicators would describe as telepathy. So basically, there is a whole invisible network of communication, of energies being exchanged constantly, and other beings in this world and in this universe are able to access that. And this might sound a little ‘woowoo; to you, but I’m not here to convince you that this is a thing.

I believe it is a thing. I have recently written a book that features an animal communicator. So, I have done a lot of research on the topic, I have watched a lot of documentaries, I’ve read a lot of books, and I’ve also seen things myself that I can’t explain. And they’ve led me to believe that there is another form of communication going on. So, just as a disclaimer before we start: I never had pets. I never had a dog and never had a cat. I had some fish once but that’s another story. And I can’t say that I ever really communicated with them or communicated well with them. I am not one of those what I would consider ‘gifted people’. I’m not the person that I wrote an entire book about, which is called ‘the age of elephants’The Age Of Elephants’, that’s my newest book about an animal communicator.

So I am not one of those people. I would say that I have never had, myself, an experience with an animal or an experience in nature that was so obviously that deeper form of connection, that deeper form of communication. I have seen things that I can’t explain, but I was never the person who heard what an animal was thinking or who received an image or a feeling from an animal… that I know of. And this might be the reason why you would want to listen to what I have learned over the last couple of weeks, because I am most likely just like you: for 30 odd years or so, I have been pretty much deaf to nature song.
That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy being out in nature, but I just didn’t know this was a thing. I didn’t grow up being taught there is this other, deeper way to interact with nature or to interact with animals.

So, I simply didn’t know, and while there are examples of people who, despite of this lack or maybe because of it, chose this journey of animal communication, but I was not one of those people. And I do think it’s important to point that out.

Speaking with Nature: A skill that can be learnt

My curiosity only awoke when I was doing my safari guide training in South Africa and I was exposed to the wild, to animals, to nature on this really intensive level, and that’s when I started to encounter things that made me wonder if there is another way to interact with nature and to interact in this world. So I come from a place of deep curiosity, and that’s why I wrote the book. I tend to write books because I want to know more about a certain topic and then I dive into that topic and I love doing the research. That’s a big reason of why I write in the first place.

So yeah, in this episode, I want to talk about this deeper level of communication that happens beyond words, that happens without words. And while I myself am not an animal communicator, what animal communicators do say is that this is a skill that can be taught. You might never get as good as the best animal communicator out there. But it is something that lies dormant within all of us, and I truly believe that.

“It is something that lies dormant within all of us, and I truly believe that.”

We all still have it. And I think this is worth exploring, especially in today’s age. It is very important that we do whatever we can to strengthen this connection again and to explore. I think we owe it to ourselves and to the world that we explore, even if there’s just the slightest chance that there might be another story going on around us, I think we owe it to ourselves and to the world and to nature that we explore this.

Speaking with Nature: Encounters on Safari in South Africa.

And while I have never experienced that deep communication myself, I did have moments on safari in South Africa. I had moments where the animals would reach out in the way that I felt was significant and there are countless of those examples, but to just give you two:

The elephant who wanted me to feel safe:

There was one example of an a female elephant. My husband Frank and I, we spent a season working in Zambia, guiding safaris there. And in Zambia, there’s one park where elephants can be sadly quite aggressive because there’s a lot of poaching going on, and there’s also a lot of trophy hunting going on.
And you can still go there but you need to have a guide who knows what he or she is doing.
So we had spent some time in that National Park where it is very common for elephants to charge from 500 metres away, just when they hear your car engine or just when they see you. They are so afraid and they are so in panic mode that they will just attack, before you might attack them. Because what happens there is, especially with trophy hunters: they tend to shoot the elephant from the vehicle, so the elephants associate that that engine noise was danger.

So we had spent quite a lot of time there, and Frank and I were very primed to be careful and to keep our distance it was it got up to the point where, when we saw an elephant we wouldn’t even stop, we we would just drive away. And I do think that was always the right decision, to keep that distance and to not get into their comfort zone. That was something that we felt quite strongly about.

I think you could say that we, over the last couple of months that we worked in Zambia… and then do need to make the disclaimer here that not all elephants in Zambia are crazy. It’s literally just this one very remote National Park where it’s like that. Anyway. Zambian elephants are great, don’t get me wrong.

So we came back from Zambia to South Africa, where my husband lived at the time. And we encountered elephants there in the Greater Kruger National Park, and there was this one female elephant that wanted to cross the road where we were stopping in our car. And Frank and I were terrified because she came out of the bushes and she was very close. And she had a couple of youngsters with her. So when those youngsters made it across the road, she stayed behind to keep them all safe, and to keep an eye on us, to see what we were doing. And I swear to you, there was this moment when she crossed the road — all of the youngsters were safe — and then she turned back around to us and she just stood there… I’m still getting goose bumps, and this is maybe how you know that there was something going on.

She just stood there quietly and just just looked at us. She spent an awful long time with us and it felt — and this is important, and I realise this only now that I’m doing this work — it truly felt like she was communicating to us, saying it’s okay. You can chill. You’re here now, we’re safe. I’m not going to harm you. It was literally, it felt like that. And for an elephant, whom I consider to be so endangered and so threatened these days, to reach out to us and give me this feeling of ‘You’re safe. You’re safe. You’re okay, I’m not going to hurt you.’ That was an incredible experience that has stayed with me until now.

A sad, old leopard reaching out

And the other example I want to give you was a female leopard. And we had known this leopard for quite a while because we kept coming back to the same area where she had her territory. And she had gotten quite old at that point. And we hadn’t seen her for a very long time. And then one morning, out on the drive, we saw her, and she was acting very strange. I mean, she’s not a shy leopard, but she would never go out of her way to approach you, you know. But that morning she seemed quite weak and tired of sorts and she would come towards our car, and she had these really sad eyes and she would make these these really sad sounds and look me straight in the eye.

And what do you need to understand is that this is a wild animal. She wasn’t injured or anything, so it’s not like you can step out of the car and help her. It’s not how nature works. But it was just so significant that she was definitely communicating something, and yeah, then she just went on her way. And that was… that was the last time I’ve seen… I’ve seen that leopard. And I don’t know what it means. Like I said, had she been visibly injured, I would have notified the ranger or something like that. But it was just really odd. It was really odd that she would reach out like that and she would come really, really close. She came that close to us… I mean, she’s still a very dangerous predator, and she came so close at some point we backed off a little bit, we drove off a little, to show her, ‘You’re in our comfort zone now.’

Speaking with nature: How animal communicators work

Anyway, those were two moments that stood out to me from from my time in South Africa, and while these two little stories will encounters felt incredibly important to me, they’re not… I don’t think they would convince you or they would convince anyone else that there’s some deeper communication going on. So I wanted to talk to about one animal communicator I discovered during my research who I honestly just find incredible. I’ve never met her. I’ve just watched documentaries about her and read a lot about her online. Her name is Anna Breytenbach, she is an animal communicator from South Africa. And there’s a an incredible video on YouTube, which I will link below this episode so you can watch it. But basically, there is a journalist who’s very sceptical whether Anna is a true animal communicator or not, if you’re seeing a pattern here: that is basically the premise of the book that I’ve written. But this is quite different. So this journalist seeks her out specifically to find out if Anna is for real or not, and she puts her in all these different situations with animals that Anna has never met before, to see if the communication is real. It’s a ascinating documentary.

How the black leopard Diabolo became Spirit

And there’s one moment where Anna and the journalist go to a game farm in South Africa. And on that game farm is a black leopard that is called ‘Diabolo’ and he was taking in the rescue animal I think he’s a rescue animal. And the caretakers took him in, but he’s causing trouble the whole time. He is just constantly aggressive and you can’t even come near him basically. And Anna goes in and she’s able to… and you need to watch this because my words don’t do it justice. Anna is able to go in and communicate with Diabolo and find out that one of the main problems is that no humans who have ever been… well taking care of him or who captured him in the first place in the place where he was before he came to this game farm. No human being ever acknowledged what a great spirit or what a great soul he is, and he never felt valued. And what comes out out of this communication is that Diabolo would really like to have a new name, and so they settle on the name ‘Spirit’. And you can see it in the documentary that this leopard literally changed his spots. Not literally, of course, because it is black leopard, but the difference is so poignant that it is going to stand out to you I promise you.

Speaking with nature: The best book on the subject

And again: this is just one example of an animal communicator that really stood out to me during my research, but there’s so many, there’s so many. I’ll link a couple of Instagram accounts that I follow if you’re interested. I also leave my entire book list from my research below this episode. One of the great books I can highly recommend is ‘Speaking with nature’, by Sandra Ingerman and Lynn Roberts. This book is incredible. It also teaches you that it’s not just about communicating with animals and to have these incredible encounters, but that communicating with nature is something that should happen on the daily and this book really… it takes you seriously and it takes these hunches seriously that you might have when it comes to communicating with nature or just spending time with nature. Great read. This book is the basis of why I’m doing this rewilding year. If you read one book from my entire list, make this one. And so, what all of these people say is that this is a skill that can be learned and that can be strengthened in each and every one of us and that was what encouraged me to try this as well. And to make this one of my challenges during my rewilding year.

And the question you might ask right now and it’s a fair question is: Why?

Why bother? Why bother speaking with the birds and the plants? And I guess there’s several reasons and it really depends on where you’re coming from and what you would like to get out of it. Maybe you have a pet, maybe you have a dog or a cat that you’re hoping to understand better and communicate with better.
Or maybe, like me, you are just deeply curious and you feel that there is this lack within you that you would like to fill in. You would like to be closer to nature again. And I tell you what, what the last three weeks have shown me is that opening that door, consciously opening that door… because I have dabbled in this for quite a while, obviously. Ever since I quit my job in Berlin and did the safari training and everything that came after which is now eight years ago. I have dabbled in this but have never consciously made the effort to learn more about it. And I just find it enriches my life so much. There’s suddenly a whole new layer that I am adding to my life by engaging with nature on this deeper level. And that is not just this communicating with nature that I’m doing right now. It’s everything. It’s the wild swimming, it’s learning about the moon, and it truly feels like coming home. And that is something I can just highly recommend you try.

Speaking with nature: How to approach this

So how did I approach this challenge? After doing my research, I knew that I had to… well first off, I had to put myself in a situation or in an environment where I would be able to do the work, and as I said, I don’t have any pets and for the past a year or even longer than for the past couple of years ever since we moved to Australia, I haven’t been in an environment where there was a lot of nature, a lot of animals close by. We lived in a suburb and we didn’t even have a garden. So, moving myself out here to the cabin where we live now, that was a huge step. That was a huge step forward in general, and a big goal that I had: to put myself back out into nature on a daily basis. So I ticked that box and then the next thing I did for the challenge was I developed a new habit of going outside first thing in the morning when I wake up. I would wake up a little earlier and sit outside on my terrace and try to meditate. And I say try to meditate because I am not very good at meditation. I try. But I’m a writer, so especially right now when I’m drafting a new a new story, there’s a lot going on in my head. There’s a lot of conversations happening between characters and whenever I do get quiet, I find that is when inspiration hits, when creativity just bursts out of this brain, and I need to get a pen then to start writing things down. So that’s a problem.
And that might just be the reason why I will never be the perfect animal communicator and why that is not my vocation. So that’s the problem I definitely do encounter whenever I do get quiet.I start thinking about the books.

But that is obviously also something I want to learn I want to get better at and I think also limiting social media as I have you know this from my last podcast episode has been so important because I need to quiet down everything else I need to quiet down as much as I possibly can. So I went outside every morning, and I sit on my porch, and the first thing that happened while I was sitting there, waiting for bird and kangaroos to come by. And I was listening, something did reach out, but it was not an animal it was a plant.
And they say, with nature communication, it always feels like a hunch. It feels like something that doesn’t come from you necessarily. It feels odd; it feels like something you might not say, or like words you might not use, and it comes very spontaneously. And that is one of the biggest problems you will find when you start out on this journey is how do I know this is something else in nature reaching out to me and not just myself narrating and myself making up stories?

And this is definitely hard again for me as a storyteller. It happens so often that I sit out there and I start narrating what the tree would say. So again, that’s a problem. But anyway, that morning, it just dawned on me very clearly that, here I am, reaching out to nature, to animals, wanting to communicate with the trees around me and everything. But I was ignoring this plant that was sitting in a pot right next to me. Here’s the story: So I have this one potted palm that has not been doing so well ever since we moved here and no matter how much I water her, she needs a lot of water, and she… I don’t know why I say ‘she’ by the way, it just comes out that way. She slowly started dying, okay, and she had these two branches, one branch was already dying and the other branch, the smaller one, was still kind of okay. But then she developed this… I think it’s called Yellow House Fungus. It’s not a dangerous fungus. You get them out it’s actually quite beautiful. It’s this bright yellow mushroom that comes out. It doesn’t do anything but it can spread to all the other house plants. So because of this fungus I moved the palm outside onto the terrace, and I have to admit, I sort of forgot about it. So this plant was sitting there, forgotten. Anyway, it was one of the first mornings I tried to communicate, and I realised that I just simply could not do this.

“We often ignore the things that are right in front of us.”

And that was my first big lesson: I cannot sit here wanting to communicate with those beings that move or with those tall trees that are all around me and just ignore this plant. So first thing I did was I repotted the palm, I got rid of the strand that had died, and gave her a good bit of water. I’ve been watching her the fungus has not come back. She’s still out there and I’m giving her a lot of water, a lot of love. And I think I give it another couple of days or so, and then if that fungus still doesn’t come back, she can get back inside.
So that was the first thing that happened and I think that’s also just such a good lesson in life, that we want these big results and we want these magnificent, significant things to happen. But we often ignore the things that are right in front of us.

Speaking with nature: The importance of empathy

So that was a big learning for me. What I realised next was that sitting up on the terrace creates a barrier that doesn’t really work for me. They say, in animal communication what’s really important is that empathy, putting yourself in their hooves or in, you know, their paws. So the next thing I did was I moved… my terrace it’s a bit higher, so I’m down onto the ground. I took off my shoes, I leaned against the trunk, and if you would like to try this as well, what I would suggest you do is should seek out a place in nature and make it the same place repeatedly, a place where you feel safe, maybe that’s in a park or it’s in the forest. Just a place where you can go back to, so you can develop this habit and you also notice changes that are happening. So I did that next and I did feel like that that also helped with the meditation and with the calming of the mind.

Now overall, I already announced during the new moon episode that I do not expect to have to come back and be ‘fluid and kangaroo’. That’s what I said: I didn’t expect to have this breakthrough. But the there was a remarkable thing that happened. And that’s what I want to share with you now, and that is that as soon as I voiced this intention out loud, as soon as I made this effort and made this plan that I wanted to communicate with animals, I swear to you, animals started to show up.

Speaking with nature: Your intention will make it happen

In this area where we live, it is very common to see a lot of animals around, but now it was up to a level that felt significant to me. So, to give you a few examples, something that never happens, and why would it, is after the first two days that I started this challenge, we had a mouse in the house. I wrote about it in my newsletter… What are the chances the month that I’m doing this ‘communicating with animals challenge’, We have a mouse that comes into the house. So that was the first one. I didn’t handle it very well in terms of communicating with the mouse. I couldn’t just tell him to please go outside, so it was a lot more hectic. But yeah, there was a mouse in the house. Then a couple of days later, sadly, a bird flew against my window. It was a tiny sparrow who flew against the window. So, I rushed outside to see if he was okay. And he flew over to a branch and sat on that branch, and actually did like almost like a twirl. You know how birds naturally, even when they’re sleeping, they know how to hold on to the branch? So he would have been so dizzy that he did a backflip all the way around. Really strange. And I didn’t know what to do, so I just… the branch was just here, off the terrace, so I just sat with the bird, and I just sat there and I decided to be really calm and I communicate with him, saying are you alright? If you need help, just let me know… and I would watch him and let him know that I’m there. I don’t know if that helped or not. But that was the second example, and the bird did eventually fly away and seemed okay.

Then the other day, a neighbour who drove up next to us where we stopped on the road, had the window down and he had a tame parrot and that parrot was just making an absolute fool of herself and always reached out to us as we were sitting there. Very, very interested in us in a very peculiar and weird way. And I had never seen that parrot before, but there he was.

A special dolphin encounter

But the most significant one I had was with a pod of dolphins. Let me tell you the story.

So Frank and I, on the weekend we like to go stand-up-paddleboarding, and we usually go up a big river and then into this really small, narrow stream. It’s very quiet in there and beautiful wild nature surrounds you in this national park. Just as we come off the main channel into the stream, Frank asked me very randomly: “Do you think dolphins would ever come up here?” And I said to him, “I mean, I hope they do because, you know, we do and it’s amazing here.”

And I kid you not, a minute later I look ahead and it looked like there was a swarm of fish splashing. And then I called out when I realised it: “It’s dolphins!” I gasped.

I was literally sitting there with my hands in front of my face because I could not believe it. I think it was for adult dolphins and one baby dolphin that came in a row… goosebumps… swimming right towards us, and as they got closer, they went under, they were diving, and they didn’t come up until they were out on the side. And I was so excited. I was just… I couldn’t believe it. I was so excited. So we turned around with our paddle boards and the dolphins were going back into the main channel. We stayed next to them for a while; they did come up again and then eventually they left.

Speaking with nature: Don’t make my mistake

And because I was in my in my ‘communicating with animals challenge’, I was very ,very aware that this is it this is it. But at the same time, I was too excited because what are the chances that they are then this tiny channel and they’re so close and it’s so awesome. So, I would have communicated, with words in my mind, saying something like “I’m here. I’m here I’m here. Oh my god, I’m so excited to see you!!!” It was like that. And too late, only after it was over, I remembered something that I read during my research, and that is that when you reach out to an animal any other being you should treat this first contact, just like when you’re reaching out to a complete stranger Imagine a stranger came up to you in the street and go like “I’m here. I’m here. I’m so excited to see you!”… Yeah, you would put a lot of distance between you and that person very quickly, I’m sure.

So that is something I forgotten that moment. That was my chance and I ruined it. But yeah, that is something to keep in mind when you do start communicating with animals. It is very important to remain respectful, and you actually ask, “Is it okay if…” I for example, if it is sort of more like a pet or a tame animal, “is it okay, if I touch you?”. You want to be very polite about it. Ask for their name, maybe they’ll tell you.

So that is definitely a big lesson learned there. But anyway, Frank and I continued our paddle for another hour. And then we came back to the spot from where we launch, and we carry the paddleboards back onto land and then we usually go for a swim. And I stayed in for a little longer and Frank already went out again and luckily he had his phone. Because, as I was swimming, I looked down to my right and I call out to him, “Oh my god, there come the dolphins again!” And I kid you not, the same dolphins, five dolphins and one one baby dolphin came back up, swimming straight towards up the river. And so this time, here I am having learned my lesson, so I just stay incredibly calm, and now the dolphins came swimming right past me. They’re not used to people, they are wild animals. But this time, I had this beautiful moment and the fact that it happened twice was… it was just such a beautiful, beautiful demonstration of the biggest lesson that I’ve learned this month:

Speaking with nature: A surprising lesson

And that lesson is twofold: So the first is that all my animal encounters might seem like small instances, they might seem insignificant or not important to someone who didn’t experience them, but what I have come to find is that, that is how the universe works. The universe works in in the quiet moments, in the small moments that we need to start paying more attention to. And as you do this, and as you allow this connection to happen between you and nature, those small moments become a lot more significant, your life becomes richer and as a result, I believe, so does nature. Both benefits. It’s a give and take, and it’s a beautiful, beautiful thing.

And the second thing is this: I think it’s Denzel Washington said something like this once: “When you ask the universe for courage, the universe doesn’t give you courage. It gives you the opportunity to be courageous.” And what that means in this context, to me, is that when you ask for something to happen, you will get the opportunity to get it, but you still have to make the effort to go out and do it. So what I have found over the last three weeks is that, as soon as I said, I would like to learn how to communicate with nature, I got all these opportunities to communicate with nature. And I’m continuing with this because it is significant, it makes my life better, and it also gives a lot of hope. You know, the way the world is going at the moment. There is another story that we can tell if we make this effort. And that, to me, is just a beautiful lesson to learn. And you can apply this to anything. It doesn’t have to be communicating with nature. But when you ask for something, the next thing you need to do is not to ask for that thing to appear in your life but to look for the opportunities you’re given to draw that thing in your life on your own accord.

And once that happens, it’s just so much more magical.

Speaking with nature: A step-by-step guide for beginners

And so, if this is something you would like to try out as well, let me give you the first step by step to get into it.

1. So the first thing you need to do is you need to establish that connection, and you do that by becoming quiet. No phones, no social media. And then you need to spend extended time outside in nature, preferably with your bare feet, just on the ground, leaning against a tree and just listening in and truly feeling that connection.
2. The second thing is understanding how a message can come through. Because it’s rarely through actual words. That is not how nature communicates. It’s much more of a feeling. People also report that they get very clear images from an animal, or it can also happen that your own body mirrors back what an animal is feeling in a certain part of the body. That’s why it takes so much time, I believe: you need to become very attuned to what’s going on in your own body and also around you. So that you know for sure: was this real? Was it just your mind playing tricks, or was that actually a message from the outside?
3. And then the third thing is to actively listen and to actively pay attention to whatever the animal or even the tree or the plant is doing. And for that to happen, we need to have a lot of experience in the bank, for example what I’m learning right now about kangaroos is, I actually need to learn their body language. Because I don’t know kangaroos that well. I don’t know how they do the things they do, so I need to collect memories of how they do things, what time of day and how they feed and how do they move. So that, when I then attempt to communicate, I know what to look out for. And I would say, this is a lot easier with cats and dogs because we’re so used to their movements, especially if you have your own pet. But it’s very important to get to know, preferably an individual. Just because one kangaroo or one dog or one cat does a particular thing, does not mean that another one will do it. They have their own quirks and personalities. So that is something to be to be wary of.
4. The fourth thing is to practice empathy. You need to put yourself in the shoes or in the paws or hooves of that animal. That is why it’s so important to actually learn about the animal; it can really help to read about them. What do they eat? Where do they sleep? What do they do all day? You need to approach this with a curious mind, to understand intellectually what it is that you actually need to be looking for. So that is sort of the ground work you need to do first you need to develop an understanding of nature of animals and you need to become quiet.
5. And then the next thing, once you actually start communicating, is to learn how to reach out. I told you about the example with the dolphins where I would just get too excited. So, you need to respectfully take a step back and then the next thing that would follow is that you actively ask questions. It should start with simple questions, such as “What is your name? How do you feel? Is there something you would like to communicate?” And this works both with animals and with plants. So, just experiment with that.

That is something I’ve been doing with my own plants over the past three weeks, and with the palm that’s still outside. And it’s something that my great grandmother always did. And I always like to tell the story, but I have now actively started to communicate with my plants as well, and to listen out for what they want to share with me. And this might sound crazy to you. But I don’t care. Because what matters is that it enriches my life, and makes this whole journey that we’re on so much more beautiful. I shared a quote on Instagram recently, I don’t remember the exact wording, but it’s basically:

“As soon as I allowed magic into my life, magic started to appear all around me.”

I don’t know about you, but I want a magical life, and I’m not making any more excuses. And I don’t think this is crazy. I think if we all did more of that, the world would be a whole lot better, and much nicer place to live. And I think that’s a pretty good place to end things today.

Speaking with Nature: I want to hear your stories.

What I would really like to learn to know from you is if you have any crazy animal encounter stories that you would like to share, however silly you think it might sound: I want to hear about it. You can either send me an email, or you can comment under this article. I would honestly love to hear your stories because I’m also still learning about this and we’re on this journey together. I’m dying to hear if you’ve experienced anything like this. And then other than that, like I said, I have read a tonne of books and you can find all of these on my website as well.

I’ll see you back here in two weeks from now for the next new moon episode. I’m going to tell you now already what the topic is: It’s going to be what we can learn from elephants. I’m going to share with you all the incredible things that I have learned about elephants. I can’t wait for it becuase they are my absolute favourite animal, and they deserve a whole episode.

So that’s what we’re gonna do next. Until then, I wish you a lovely weekend. Make the most of it. Bye, bye…

Hi ♥️, I’m Gisele Stein, author of feel-good novels with a little magic and places like characters, which i craft from my cosy cabin on Wadandi Boodja in Western Australia. Have a look at my books here. I’m also podcasting as The Earthy Writer, to document my rewilding year: Every new moon, I set a new rewilding intention for the month, and every full moon I share my learnings with you…