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 From Sheridan Voysey, Writer and broadcaster:

 Last year an Australian friend came to visit me. I wasted no time showing Jason the best of Oxfordshire, taking him to Blenheim Palace, the Bodleian Library, and cosy villages with thatched-roof cottages to prove such things really did exist outside of Midsomer Murders. Visits to York and Holy Island followed, then some hiking around Northumberland.

One afternoon we hiked up a windswept hill, crossed a field of wildflowers then entered a forest of towering pines. The forest was quiet, each crunch of our steps heard against a whisper of rustling leaves. After the woods came a valley, where we paused for a moment. Clouds floated softly above us. A stream trickled nearby. The only sounds were birdsongs. We stood in silence for a full fifteen minutes taking it all in.

It turns out that what Jason and I experienced then was more than a pleasant diversion. According to research from the University of Derby, people who stop to notice nature experience higher levels of happiness, lower levels of anxiety and depression, and a heightened desire to care for the earth. As little as 20 seconds of contemplation a day is all it takes, although walking through the forest isn’t enough. You have to watch the clouds, smell the flowers, listen to the birds. The key isn’t being in nature, but noticing it.

Scientists continue to discuss why noticing nature affects us this way. I wonder if there’s a spiritual component to it. In the biblical story, God tells Job to contemplate the sea, sky and stars as evidence of his presence—an experience that left him speechless. Jesus said that watching the ‘birds of the air’ and ‘flowers of the field’ could reveal God’s care. Many thinkers and artists through time have believed Something greater lay behind nature—like van Gogh, whose vibrant sunflowers and swirling skies tried to depict the light of God he saw shining through the world.

According to the researchers, only a quarter of us stop to watch clouds or smell the wildflowers. If they’re right, taking a moment to notice nature will help both us and the planet. And if Job and van Gogh are to be believed, it might also give us a glimpse of a God who notices us.