🍃 Reciprocity: the interview

6 questions for Annette Naber

Nature writer, n. A person who delights in paying attention, being astonished, and telling about it.¹

“Sometimes it feels like nature is writing through me rather than me writing about nature. I love being a channel; when that happens, my best writing comes through.” ~ Annette Naber

Late summer mandala, photo by Annette Naber

Welcome to Season 3 of the Reciprocity interviews that celebrate authors of lovingly observed essays and photographs of special places, whose work tends relationships with humans and all beings.

Today’s guest, Annette Naber left a successful psychology career in Washington DC to become a homesteader and land steward in the Virginia Highlands. She tries to live lightly on the earth and helps others connect to nature through forest bathing, foraging classes, and retreats.

Annette’s newsletter provides appealing doses of inspiration, currently as part of the global art challenge, The 100 Day Project. On Day 1 back in February, she shared a list of ways that she calms her nervous system — including watching birds, tending houseplants, sowing seeds, and planning retreats (more about those at the end). And she has deeper dives into topics such as 'Plant Blindness,’ a condition linked to nature deficit disorder.²

Annette’s newsletter can be found at the link below. Her author website is here.

Why are you drawn to nature writing?

Nature nourishes and sustains me, inspires me, gives me sensory experiences and symbolic messages. I draw many of my metaphors from the cycles of plants, the animals I see around me and the forces of nature I get to witness. Sometimes it feels like nature is writing through me rather than me writing about nature. I love being a channel; when that happens, my best writing comes through.

How does writing about nature affect you, in your work or personal life?

Nature writing flows out of my work and, in turn, informs my work in an organic way — I teach foraging classes, guide people through forest bathing experiences, and facilitate personal growth retreats richly infused with nature. While I have a background as a clinical psychologist and so learned to hold space for individuals and groups, my own experiences and understanding of nature expand my ability to show up for others and deepen their experience in nature.

Also, encouraged by reading Robin Wall Kimmerer’s writings, I am deepening my exploration of reciprocity with nature in my personal life and in my work with others. How can we make our exchanges with nature bi-directional; how can we leave something of value behind instead of only taking from nature?

While outside, have you ever experienced feeling small, lost or in danger? 

Yes, I often feel small when I look over the endless mountain ranges here in the Highlands of Virginia which connect seamlessly with the wilds of West Virginia. I often feel small when I stand by the ocean and feel its powerful rhythm pulsing in my veins, take in its immensity, and sense its ancientness in my bones. I felt danger when I unexpectedly faced a mountain lion on my own property. I described that visceral experience and extracted its symbolic meaning for our own sense of wildness vs. domestication and disconnection from nature in my book, Seasons of a Wild Life.

Morning magic web, photo by Annette Naber

What’s a favorite memory of nature from your childhood?

As a child, roaming freely through the fields and meadows on the outskirts of my little town in Germany where I grew up. Finding plums, cherries, and apples to eat, gathering wild blueberries and mushrooms with my family, or picking wildflowers by myself. As a teenager, I had a transcendent experience of coming across a beautiful scene on a bicycle path lined with wildflowers. Everything was still shiny and wet from a brief rain. I stopped my bicycle to marvel at the beauty and all of a sudden my entire life unfolded in front of me, I understood where I had been and where I was headed. It was all crystal clear in that moment — but afterwards, I could never describe it to anyone or even put it in writing. It was my first consciously spiritual experience of nature.

What do you hope for, for your writing? 

I hope that my writing inspires others to seek their own deeply meaningful experiences in nature. As I write in the Introduction to my book: “I hope Seasons of a Wild Life encourages you to apprentice yourself to whatever environment you find yourself in, and that you allow yourself to be nourished, enchanted, and more rooted by the place you inhabit. I offer [my writing] in the spirit of healing: may we recognize our deeper purpose of being and nudge our inner nature toward a more conscious reconnection with nature around us.” (p.4)

A writer or other creative artist who makes you hopeful for humanity and the earth.

Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass and The Serviceberry – for her creative integration of scientific knowledge, subjective experience, and ancestral wisdom. I also found Paul Hawken’s Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation very inspiring. He addresses the challenges faced by the major biozones on our planet, how they are affected by the climate crisis, and proven ways we can contribute to make things better.

Well, hi there, photo by Annette Naber

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Each season, we donate 30% of paid subscriptions to a worthy environmental cause. This season, it’s Indigenous Climate Action. They envision a world with sovereign and thriving Indigenous Peoples and cultures leading climate justice for all. Track past and current recipients here.

What did you enjoy most about this interview? We’d love to hear from you. Or share it with others by restacking on Notes, via the Substack app. Thanks!

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Notes and links

Two upcoming retreats led by today’s guest, Annette Naber:

These reatreats bring together her love for nature and her skills in helping people immerse themselves deeply in nature.

Nature Reconnection: Crafting A Deeper Bond with the Earth, June 12-14, 2026 at Yogaville in Virginia. More info here.

Between Tides: Nature, Creativity & Renewal, October 8-11, 2026 on Chincoteague Island, Virginia. More info here.

Participate in the Reciprocity series. . .

If you’d like to participate in this interview series, please DM me on chat, or reach out via email: gabrielli-dot-julie-at-gmail. Find previous interviews and an anthology of the first two years here.

Until Substack offers a ‘Nature’ category. . .

Wildheart curates this lovely directory of nature-focused writers:

1. thanks, Mary Oliver

2. That post is here.