Outside In: An Enchanting Watercolor Meditation on Our Inseparable Link to Nature

“Nature is our mother. Because we live cut off from her, we become sick,” wrote Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh while reminding us that the essential part of mindful living is going outside the city and reconnecting with Mother Earth, the wellspring of vitality and well-being.

It’s unfortunate that we rarely go to the country and almost never for a whole day or to spend the night. When we do, we arrive in good spirits, enjoy the fresh air and wide-open landscapes, eat good lunch, but subconsciously we feel invisibly trapped, homesick, and discontent.

And yet how longingly we envision the peace of the countryside that we would almost flee, if only we could so easily and gracefully! How often in the city, among the tall buildings, busy streets, and crowds of people we suppose that peace, prose, and definitive reality are out there, among the trees, grass, and a gentle breeze that cannot be heard rather than here, where irresistible tablecloth of civilization makes us forget and numbs our feelings.

At what point in our lives has artificial become natural and what’s natural has become almost strange and something alien to us? This befuddling question is what author Deborah Underwood and illustrator Cindy Derby explore with meditative immersion in Outside In, a series of enchanting watercolor paintings that transport us into a different reality, a reality that frees us and makes us more alive and present.

Now
sometimes even when
we’re outside…
we’re inside.

We forget Outside is there.
So Outside reminds us
with flashes at the window
and slow magic tricks.

We feel Outside
in the warm weight of our cats
and the rough fur of our dogs.

Outside shows
there is a time to rest
and a time to start fresh.

I’m here,
Outside says.
I miss you.

And we answer.