Earth as Teacher: Slow, Belong, Heal

What if the Earth has been teaching us how to live all along?

In this episode of Outside the Script, I'm reflecting on the quiet wisdom nature offers us every single day and what happens when we slow down enough to actually listen.

Together, we'll explore what the changing seasons, the trees, the soil, and the rhythms of the natural world can teach us about healing, rest, purpose, and belonging. We'll talk about why nothing in nature blooms all year, how modern life has disconnected us from what truly matters, and why I believe returning to the Earth isn't about escaping life—it's about remembering how to live in deeper relationship with it.

If you've been feeling overwhelmed, disconnected, or like you're constantly pushing against the current, this episode is an invitation to pause, breathe, and rediscover the wisdom that's been beneath your feet all along.

Because maybe healing isn't about becoming someone new.

Maybe it's about remembering that you were never separate from nature to begin with.

Transcript

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Hello, everybody, and welcome back. Happy Monday. Happy Moonday. Welcome back to the side the script. I'm your host, Amanda Kuku, and I'm so grateful to be here with you. I just got up. I am getting ready to head to the mountains for the week. I really need some rest and relaxation and just some space just to collect my thoughts, to rest, to be in nature, and uh spend time with my family. So I'm really excited for that. I really need it. In the last episode, I talked about returning to my roots and returning to Gaia and the earth and herbalism. Um and so something that's been just kind of coming to heart. If I'm returning to Gaia, if I'm returning to the earth, then what is it that she's actually trying to teach me? Of course, that's unfolding, but we'll start picking that apart. And I do believe that the earth is one of our greatest teachers. And I think the reason, one of the reasons that I'm returning to this path and devoteing to this path of herbalism in the earth and Gaia is because I need it the most. This is what I need. And this is what is going to be one of my greatest healing journeys. And so I feel like whatever we need the most is what we usually teach. Or, like I said in the last episode, if you don't know your purpose, go to your wound. It will reveal itself. And so, as Gaia being one of our great greatest teachers, I think the beautiful thing about that is it's not through words, it's not through books, but it's through observation and it's through relationship and it's through simply just paying attention. And, you know, when I had the opportunity to slow down this winter, the more I realized that the earth has been showing us this all along, and those messages were coming through. And the question is, have you become too busy to notice these things? And so today I want to share some of like lessons that the earth has been teaching us, me, and you know, maybe she's teaching you too. So one of the first things I notice or I think about often is when you're in the woods or when you're in nature, everything belongs. Nothing is questioned whether if they're enough. And the birds ain't worried that they're behind. Like nature's not competing, nature is just participating. And somewhere along the way, I think that we've forgotten that we're a part of this too. And I believe in our culture that, you know, we feel like we need to earn our place, we need to earn our worth, we need to earn our rest, earn our joy. But the earth has never asked us to do that. She just reminded us that we already belong. Modern life also has a funny way, I feel like, of controlling everything. Control our schedules, control our outcomes, control our bodies, control our success, control our healing. But nature doesn't operate that way. She invites relationships, she doesn't force a seed to grow, you know. So, and um I think that maybe healing is that the same. Maybe our job isn't to force ourselves into becoming something else. Maybe it's to create conditions where healing naturally wants to happen. The body always wants to heal. And I think one of my greatest lessons, and what in like something that's very, you know, woven into my life, um, and something I do firmly believe in, but I do think that lessons come in layers and in waves, and you get it like the lesson. Like, so you learn a lesson and then it will circle back around, and then you'll get it a little deeper, and then that lesson will come back around again, and then it will deepen, and then that lesson will come back around again, and then you really start to like embody that. And so I think in our culture, we like we're expected to like blossom all year round, right? Like always producing, always creating, always saying yes, always just showing up, doing, growing, all the things, but Earth doesn't live that way. She has a spring, she has a summer, she has an autumn, she has a winter. Every season has a purpose. And nothing blooms all year, nothing. But somehow we've convinced ourselves that we should. And I know I've done it, I know I'm guilty. I fought my winters, and I judge the seasons where I'm tired, uncertain, or slower, like, oh, there must be something wrong. Or, you know, I would analyze that, but you know, say, what if winter's not the problem? And what if winter is where our roots deepen? What if the quiet seasons are just as sacred as the blossoming ones? And like I've said in many episodes, is we have to remind ourselves as well that we are we are cyclical by nature, especially women, you are a cyclical being. Um, and so one of the things, one thing that's everything has changed for me is that nature never separates productivity from rest. They're partners, you know, animals hibernate, trees become still, the earth knows uh restoration creates abundance. And I feel like we have forgotten that we turned rest into something like we have to earn, or feel guilty or feel bad about that. And maybe rest isn't the reward, maybe rest is a part of the work, maybe slowing down isn't falling behind, and maybe it's just preparing you for what's next. And uh, I feel like the earth teach that nothing is wasted, okay? Leaves fall, they become soil, old plants die, they nourish new life, compost becomes garden, and nature never sees decay as failure. And I do love that it's transformation, and maybe that's true for us. Maybe the ending we've been grieving actually makes room for something we never imagined. Maybe what feels like a little off, lost, actually is just preparation for the next thing to come. And so everything in nature exists because of relationship. And relationship is the basis of everything, right? We we need to build relationship with everything. And so in nature, you know, the fungi, the trees, the soil, the rain, the pollinator, nothing survives alone. Everything's in this beautiful relationship of give and take, give and take, give and take, give and receive. Everything belongs to something larger than itself. And so I wonder what if we've forgotten that healing happens in relation as well. Relationship with the earth, relationship to our bodies, relationship to our communities, relationships to our families. Maybe healing has never meant to be something we accomplish alone. And that's a big one for me. I'm not one to uh really ask for help. I'm learning more. And uh I've always, you know, when it comes to my own healing and processes, I've always really have just done that myself and really internalized everything and worked through everything on my own. Uh, and so anyway, sometimes, you know, I imagine if Gaia, the earth, sat beside me, like what would she say? I don't think she'd be like, she'd say, you know, anything to shame me or guilt me. I don't think she tell us or tell me that we're doing everything wrong. I think she would sit next to me and gently smile and say, My child, slow down. You're trying too hard, you're overcomplicating everything, you're carrying too much. So come sit with me, take off your shoes, feel the ground beneath your feet, take a breath. You're safe, you're so safe, and you're gonna be okay, you know. And I I feel like, you know, she would just be like, come home, come home to me. And honestly, I think that's a reminder like that we all need, you know. So yeah, I think we just mistake busy for being alive. I really do. It really feels like productivity and just always being on. You mistake that for being alive. And I feel like these days the opposite is just completely the truth, you know. And I think, you know, becoming an herbalist, a gardener, identifying wild plants, whatever it may be, those are beautiful expressions of the relationship. But I think the deeper if in invitation is remembering who we are. And modern life has us just so disconnected from our bodies, from our intuition, from our children, our communities, our joy, our wonder, and most of all the earth itself. And if we want to heal, we don't need another complicated protocol. We don't, I think we don't, we don't, we just I've said it over and over, like I just, and I've been laughing about it. I really have been laughing about it, and I think it's just hilarious as humans. We overcomplicate everything. We just do. And I think everything and all the answers are right in front of our eyes, and we just turn a blind eye. It's funny, it's funny to me. I don't know. And yeah, anyway, and I just feel like the earth has been showing us all along to like slow down, to rest, to trust, to participate, to belong, to listen. Yeah, all the all the good things, right? So, anyway, uh I'm gonna wrap this episode up. I want to get to the mountains, I want to get packing. Uh, and I want to leave you with one invitation. Go outside today without a phone, without an agenda, sit beneath the tree, walk barefoot if you can, watch the wind move through the leaves, notice the birds, the smell of the beach, the ocean, the sand, the soil. And notice that nothing is rushing, nothing is forcing, nothing is trying to become something it isn't. Everything is simply participating in the season that it's in. And maybe there's wisdom in that for all of us. And maybe healing isn't about becoming more, maybe it's just about remembering, remembering that we are not separate from nature. We are nature. And I truly believe the earth is always teaching us. And, you know, the question is, have we become still enough to listen? So, my friends, thank you so much for being here with me today. And I appreciate you. I'm grateful for you. And uh yeah, until next time, get outside, touch the earth, listen deeply, and remember you belong here, human. I love you all, and bye for now.