Spending time in nature each week at Darebin Parklands is giving me a connection to a place throughout the year. I get to see that same place in each of the different seasons. I love going each week and seeing what has changed and what is familiar. I've been going there long enough now that I recognise plants and can say, "Oh it's kangaroo apple flowering time again."

This sense of continuity is profoundly reassuring. It comforts me to know that in spite of all the crazy things going on in the world, the plants will continue to grow and blossom. The animals will continue to breed and raise their young. The sun will continue to shine and the rain will continue to fall. Being in nature grounds and anchors me in such an incredible way.

Marking the seasons and the passage of the earth around the sun by what it happening in nature instead of flipping pages on a calendar is bringing me so much joy. I get to be outside in the sun and the rain and the wind. I can feel the bare earth and prickly grass under my feet. I breathe in the scent of sunshine and blossoms - surely the best perfume ever created. And I can take big, deep lungful breaths of fresh air.