Many of you have probably heard about the Proust Questionnaire, a few simple questions that shed insight on a person’s character and were made famous by the French writer Marcel Proust.
Writer, explorer and photographer Daniel Fox has come up with a brilliant adaptation to that questionnaire to discover what nature means to people and how they feel about it. His project The Proust Nature Questionnaire interviews someone every week and I am delighted to be included in this project.
What does nature mean to you? How would you answer these questions? Read my responses on the project website and below.
3 words to describe Nature?
Harmony. Joy. Peace
3 things Nature taught you?
How to be at peace with myself
To look at the bigger picture
To respect others
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Our off-the-grid boat access only cabin in the Gulf Islands
Old growth forests of Vancouver Island
The alpine environment of BC’s mountains.
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel…?
At peace
When you see a forest, it makes you feel…?
Awed by its greatness and complexity
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel…?
Enthralled and humbled by its force
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel…?
Appreciative to be able to experience such beauty and grateful for the day ahead or day passed
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel…?
Like curling up someplace dry and being a spectator
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel…?
Humbled by its power
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Ocean
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
When I was kid, we lived in Edmonton Alberta. One evening, the sky exploded in waves of colour: green, purple and pink. At first I thought something was terribly wrong. It was still the Cold War, and in my school on a military base, nuclear war was on people’s minds; my best friend even had a bomb shelter in her basement. It wasn’t long before someone wiser explained that it was the Northern Lights, aurora borealis. Terror turned to amazement and relief. It was a very emotional event, to behold a phenomena so beautiful, otherworldly, and incomprehensible to my young eyes.
