The Forest as Collaborator

An Hour In Nature

Nkechi Deanna Njaka lives in the Presidio, where San Francisco’s forest meets the Pacific. She is a neuroscientist, and contemplative artist, whose daily life is shaped by walking, swimming, listening, and moving through this landscape. Nature is not something she escapes to — it is the environment that structures how she works, thinks, and rests.

In this Hour in Nature, Nkechi talks about attention, the nervous system, and what long-term relationship with a place can teach us about resilience, regulation, and being human. Here are her reflections:

"I live, practice, create, rest, and dream on unceded Ohlone land in the Presidio of San Francisco. The Presidio is a place where forest meets ocean. There are 300-acres of over 75,000 trees made up of cypress, pine, redwoods and eucalyptus.  The nature shapes the rhythm of my life lived daily and existing here in close relationship with this land is an important aspect to my creative practice and contemplative work. Long walks, listening, dancing, and observation amongst the trees and along the coast offer me the deepest nourishment and wisdom. The Presidio is my collaborator, teaching me about cycles, interdependence, resilience, and survival. This relationship has developed sweetly over time and I am grateful for how it continually guides me in being. I have lived here for almost 15 years and it has profoundly shaped my life. 

I approach my work as a contemplative artist and a facilitator of participatory practice with the same reverence the grass has for the trees, the ocean has for the sand, the sky have for the sun, stars and moon.

Paying attention really invites me to slow down and allows me to appreciate the complexity and beauty of the world. It also creates space for beauty, wonder and awe. 

In nature, I move. I dance. I walk and observe. I listen. I ocean swim, moon-and-star-gaze, ski when there is snow, and lay in the sand when it is warm. These practices are not leisure; they are simply ways of knowing. This attentiveness deeply regulates my nervous system and restores coherence to my body and mind. It is truly such a gift. 

For me, natural environments create more internal space for inquiring—spaces for deeper thought and exploration around sovereignty, agency, and freedom. There is an interconnecting web and weaving that is intricate, delicate, profoundly supportive and present. 

There is a cluster of trees near my home—enormous trees that have fallen but have not fallen alone. Though uprooted, they leaned into neighboring trees, remaining held by the forest’s intelligent network. They are still alive, still communicating, still supporting, still connected. For me, they are a living teaching of survival, resilience, and the necessity of community. They remind me of love, and they feel like family. 

I believe nature has both consciousness and spirit. This belief is rooted in animism and Igbo cosmology, where the land, water, and trees are understood as alive, communicative, interconnected and relational. I think of the cosmos as an incredibly dynamic system where the physical and spiritual realms are unified through living, natural, and ancestral beings all communicating to restore harmony. 

I experience this often here; the trees and the ocean speaking constantly—offering messages of survival, hope, and continuity. In response, I listen. I speak back and say “I love you, thank you.” Relationship, for me, is reciprocity.

Ritual is a way I give nature a place inside my home. I sit daily in a tea practice, where living water is central. Tea holds all the elements in its simplicity: earth, fire, water, air, and time. It is a small, intimate ecology that mirrors the larger outside.

There are sensations I believe everyone should experience at least once: the way the Pacific Ocean feels on the face, the smell of rain, fresh-cut grass, the warmth of sun on skin. These are not just sensory pleasures; they are reminders that we belong—to each other, and to the living world.

Living here, I have learned that liberation is not isolation; it is a collective effort."

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Photo credit Kirby Stenger | Personal Project)