A Prayer for Connection in Nature

The month of February often pushes us indoors. We hunker down, move quickly from place to place, and treat the outside world as something to endure rather than enter. The Jewish holiday of Tu BiShvat quietly resists that instinct. It asks us to remember that even now, even here in Canada, life is stirring beneath the frozen ground. It connects us to the land of Israel and the first buds of spring that will soon blossom there.

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (1772-1810), a Ukrainian Hasidic rabbi and master storyteller, offers a prayer that feels especially right for this moment. In it, he asks not for answers to life’s big questions, nor for certainty in the face of challenge. Rather, he prays only for the ability to be alone, to step outside, and to let the natural world participate in his prayer. It is a vision of spiritual life that is grounded, relational, and deeply embodied.

Here is the prayer in full:

A Prayer for Connection in Nature

Grant me the ability to be alone;may it be my custom to go outdoors each dayamong the trees and grass - among all growing thingsand there may I be alone, and enter into prayer,to talk with the One to whom I belong.May I express there everything in my heart,and may all the foliage of the field -all grasses, trees, and plants -awake at my coming,to send the powers of their life into the words of my prayerso that my prayer and speech are made wholethrough the life and spirit of all growing things,which are made as one by their transcendent Source.May I then pour out the words of my heartbefore your Presence like water, O Adonai,and lift up my hands to You in worship,on my behalf, and that of my children!— Rebbe Nachman of Breslov

What I appreciate about this prayer is that Rebbe Nachman does not assume that prayer is something we generate on our own. He imagines prayer becoming whole, becoming true and real, only when the life force of elements in the natural world strengthens it. For him, trees and plants of the natural world are not a backdrop for spiritual life; they are partners in it.

Let us sit with this brilliant teaching for a moment. It feels important right now. Many of us are tired of carrying everything, tired of feeling like we are doing so alone. Our world and our words feel tangled and uncertain, and we may be striving for new and different language. But this prayer suggests that we do not need to find newer or better words. Rather, we need to reconnect with our natural world. We need to let ourselves be supported by a living world that knows how to grow quietly and patiently, even in winter.

Tu BiShvat reminds us that growth does not always look like blossoms bursting forth in vibrant colours, announcing itself to all. Sometimes growth looks like standing still. Sometimes it looks like bending. Sometimes it looks like trusting that something is happening beneath the surface.

This month, why not try Rebbe Nachman’s practice? Step outside (even in the freezing temperatures) and stand near something that is growing, or resting, or waiting. It might be a tree, or it might be your perennial rhubarb or herbs. Let your words of praise, prayer, request, or longing arrive there, however incomplete they are. Know that you are not praying alone, for there is quiet stirring beneath your feet.