Welcome back to 🌿🌙 THE EARTHY WRITER: My Rewilding Year 🐝✨
This is episode 13, where I explore the transformative power of keeping a nature journal and how it taught me valuable lessons about perfectionism, creativity, and my personal connection to the natural world right outside my doorstep.
In this Rewilding Episode, you’ll discover:
- The importance of embracing imperfection in creative pursuits
- How nature journaling can deepen your connection with the environment
- Overcoming the fear of being a “bad artist” and the joy of creating for yourself
- The unexpected benefits of documenting your observations and experiences in nature
- Practical tips for starting and maintaining your own nature journal
- Insights on the rewilding journey and finding your place in the world
About your host:
Hi 👋, I’m Gisele Stein. I’m a novelist and a nature-lover, writing magical women’s fiction from my cosy cabin on Wadandi Boodja in Western Australia.
Get my free novella ONE WILD EMBER, the prequel to an intoxicating new urban fantasy series. ‘Practical Magic’ meets ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ in this rich and rebellious story of magic and matriarchy, love and loss (series title & full blurb tba)❤️🔥
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Episode Links:
Ira Glass on being a beginner:
Episode Transcript:
Happy Full Moon, everyone, and thank you for tuning in today and spending some time with me. Let’s take a moment to acknowledge the Wadandi People, the traditional custodians of the land I’m speaking from today.
We have a super blue moon in Aquarius this month, and this can be – so I ‘ve read – a time of radical change, and an invitation to shed things that are no longer serving us, but also it could be that these changes come in from the outside, in ways that might feel scary or overwhelming.
A little manifestation hack:
And before I tell you everything I’ve learnt about keeping a nature journal, I wanted to share a little mindset shift that I’ internalised lately, and it has made a real difference in my ability to handle uncertain times, and to stay in that trusting energy:
Whenever I catch myself stressing over an outcome that is out of my control, I tell myself the following: “It’s okay. You got this.”
And when I say “You”, I’m not addressing myself, but I’m addressing the Universe, that higher force that I know to be out there, the greater good – whatever you like to call it. I’m snapping out of my own head and I remind myself that I am not alone in this. I remind myself that I have placed my order, so to speak, with the Universe. I’ve placed my order, I’ve voiced my desires and hopes and dreams, and so now there is no need for me to stress about it anymore. Because I know: “You got this.” I know it’s already coming, it’s already on it’s way, and I am allowed to relax and to let go.
“It’s okay. You got this.”
And that really gives me that sense of being carried, of somebody taking me by the hand, someone working magic in the background.
“It’s okay. You got this.”
Something to think about during this highly charged energetic week…
Rewilding Challenge of the month: Start a nature journal
And now, let’s talk nature-journalling!
Truth be told, I struggled quite a bit with this rewilding challenge because I am a little perfectionist, especially when it comes to anything artistic. I can be incredibly hard on myself and give up before I even try. In fact, that is why I didn’t start writing my novels until I was in my thirties. I tried many, many times before, but whatever I wrote was so terrible, and didn’t live up to my own standards, that I simply could not stand the pain of being a bad artist, a bad writer.
And I’ve spoken about this before: This actually led me to start what’s called a “shadow career”: I became a travel writer, writing about my own experiences, rather than learning the craft of writing fiction. And it was only during the pandemic, when I could not travel anymore, when I had to sit still in one place, that I had to turn my attention to the real dream, the dream of writing novels. And, as terrible a time the pandemic was, I will always be grateful for that reset, and I believe the pandemic was like that for a lot of people.
But so, when it came to this month’s challenge of keeping a nature journal, I think I went about it the wrong way. Because I have a whole Pinterest board with my favourite naturalists and nature artists who keep their own journals, and so
There is a quote by Ira Glass that talks about this, and that I absolutely love, and I wanted to read it to you now. However, it is much better to listen to it in his own voice, and will put a YouTube video on my blog. But Ira Glass said,
“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
Ira Glass
So, when I began my nature journal a couple of weeks ago, I tried one morning, I sat down on my porch and the idea was to draw the plants and trees that are in my own garden, and – I sucked. I absolutely sucked, and I really did not expect to be that bad at it.
A while ago, I taught myself how to draw wildlife, and I was actually quite good at it towards the end, or at least I got to a point where I could see some progress, but plants, as it turns out, are a lot different. It’s a lot more difficult for me to get the light and shadow right, and the colours, and the dimensions…
And I basically gave up and was ready to tell you today that I could not complete this challenge. But then I thought about it, and I realised that I was going about it the wrong way.
And what I realised is that, a nature journal is nothing to show off to anyone. It’s nothing to post on social media, it’s not a product I wish to make money off.
Keeping a nature journal: A personal journey
A nature journal is just for me.
A nature journal is just that: It is a journal. It is a documentation, a private documentation, of my rewilding journey, of my relationship with the plants and the trees and the flowers. It doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, there is a beauty in it not being perfect.
And so, I went back out there, and I really sat with… being bad at creating. And I’ve found this video by Ed Sheeran the other day, I think I might have shared it on Insta, but Ed Sheeran says a similar thing, and that is that: Artists are not born, they are made. And they are made by practicing, by going through lots and lots of art that sucks, and getting better at it is all about being able to sit with the bad art, knowing that the quicker you get all the bad art out of your system, the sooner the quality art will appear on the page.
And with the nature journal, all of that doesn’t even matter necessarily. Because it’s such a personal, private thing. Like, when I write my normal journal, I don’t care what my writing looks like… although that’s not entirely true, at least not for the first page. You should see the first page of every journal I’ve ever started: The handwriting is immaculate. But then you turn one page, and then it’s all just gibberish and I can hardly read it myself anymore.
A nature journal is you, thinking on paper.
So, keeping a nature journal is the same thing: it’s essentially a way of thinking on paper, with the occasional drawing thrown in. It’s a way for you to connect and sit with the nature that surrounds you. A way to document and notice the changes that happen in your area throughout the year. The observations that you make, the questions that you’re wondering about, and the connections you make between things that you have seen before and what you’re experiencing while you use them.
And there is another thing I’ve realises, and I think this is such a beautiful lesson to learn from this:
For me, nature journalling is the perfect hack to get me to pay closer attention to the world around me, to get out of my head and interact with nature on a deeper level, to get quiet and be aware.
And here comes the brilliant twist in this:
The art is in support of paying attention to nature. You see, so often, artists will say that their art was inspired by nature. But with nature journalling, it’s the other way around.
And because of that, if you draw something, and it’s not quote-on-quote “pretty” – that’s okay! It’s not about the art, it’s about you noticing.
And when you drew something that’s not living up to your standards, all you should take from that is the permission to try again and make another one. And over time, you’re creating this beautiful journey on paper, and you will see progress, and you will see how you got better. And this is something I’ve been doing for the longest time, actually: I like to go back to the beginning of an artist I admire. I love to watch YouTube videos of Ed Sheeran, busking in the streets. I love to read VE Schwab’s early works, or when I find a creator I adore on social media, I like to scroll down to their earlier posts, to see how much they’ve learnt. Nobody starts out perfect.
And the other thing is that, with creative work, I think it happens very quickly that our work becomes our life. Some of you may know that I love the quote by Helena Bonham Carter who said that,
“I think everything in life is art. What you do. How you dress. The way you love someone, and how you talk. Your smile and your personality. What you believe in, and all your dreams. The way you drink your tea. How you decorate your home. Or party. Your grocery list. The food you make. How your writing looks. And the way you feel. Life is art.”
Helena Bonham Carter
And while I believe that is so true and beautiful, I’m discovering that some of my art deserves to be private, deserves not to be shared, deserves to be only for me. And my nature journal is one of those things. It’s my own private journey of becoming a naturalist – not to make a career out of it, but simply because it enriches my life, my every-day-little-life. It’s a great way of helping myself become more curious about the world around me. And the more I do it, the more those little mysteries start pulling me deeper and deeper into everything that’s going on out there, and I find so much unexpected beauty in a feather or a leave or a flower.
It’s… it’s very small. It’s very quiet. And it’s very, very personal. It’s an incredibly grounding practice that helps deepen your understanding of the natural world that’s right outside your doorstep, and as I’m now over halfway through my rewilding year, I’m truly beginning to understand that that is what Rewilding, to me, is all about: It’s to feel at home in this world, to feel like you belong, that you’re a part of what’s going on around you, and that there is a reason why you landed where you landed in this world. I truly believe that the place you feel at home, be that the country you were born into or the heart place you chose to make your home as you grow older, this stuff is not random. There is a design to it, and you being in that place you’re in right now – matter.
And maybe that’s something to think about over the coming weeks. I really hope you start your own nature journal, or maybe you have already, and you’d like to be brave and send me a little snapshot of it, or a picture from where you’re listening to this today. I’d really like to hear from you. Let’s inspire one another.
Thank you so much for listening. Do something wild this week. Until next time, By-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…