Clare Bronfman

Throughout my childhood – I had the great fortune of traveling to many places and experiencing many cultures all of which shaped much of my life today. Over the next few weeks I will share the various places, cultures and how each of them moved me.

I would like to start with Kenya. My mother lived there when I was growing up and Sara and I used to visit her during our school holidays. It was incredible – driving through the game parks – seeing all of the animals, being a part of the ivory burnings, lead by Richard Leakey, an incredible man who was like a father during much of my life, and seeing a way of living that was completely foreign to me upon arrival. I think the most profound experience was when my mother sent my sister, Sara and I to live with a tribe for two weeks. Sara and I where the only “mzungu” (white) children the tribe had ever seen and I remember the children running to see us when we arrived – they were so curious; touching us and giggling! During those two weeks we lived very simply; in mud huts with no electricity, a hole for a toilet, and extremely simple food – however the way of life encompassed incredible richness. The drumming circles, the dancing, the warmth of the people and the way all of the children would gather together to play it was wonderful. I didn’t speak their language, but there was something beyond language; being a child, being human. I will never forget my time there – or all of the other memories of Kenya, and am ever grateful for my Mother’s choice to live there!!

“The natural world is the larger sacred community to which we belong. To be alienated from this community is to become destitute in all that makes us human. To damage this community is to diminish our own existence.”

- Thomas Berry

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better”.

- Albert Einstein

As summer is here I am once again reminded of the incredible cyclical process of death and re-birth. I am constantly amazed and in wonder of this amazing place we are privileged to inhabit.
The majority of my childhood, I was either playing with horses, out in the fields or exploring in the woods. I grew up on a farm outside a little village called Hartest in the lush English countryside. This is where my curiousity and love of nature began. Over the years I have always turned to nature to find a sense of peace within my self – whether it is hiking in the Himalayas, sitting on a fallen tree in a forest in Australia, galloping through the fields on a horse or lying on my hammock in my current suburban neighborhood staring up at the trees. There is perfection to nature I have not yet found in humans (or perhaps myself) – where I find myself in awe. Have you ever looked at a flower and been amazed by the symmetry, by the intimate and delicate design of every petal? When I was about nine years old I remember spending what seemed like several hours watching an army of ants cross a dirt track somewhere in Kenya. They all seemed to know exactly where they were going, and I perceived they knew why! I found it fascinating.
Because of my deep sense of love for nature, I focused my philanthropic tendencies towards trying to save forests and animals. One day a good friend of mine asked me what the world would be like if humans never interfered with nature – my face lit up, and with a huge smile I described lush forests, with flowers and animals thriving! She then asked me what the problem was; nature or the treatment of nature by humans?

Treat the earth well.
It was not given to you by your parents,
It was loaned to you by your children.
We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors,
We borrow it from our children.

- Ancient Indian Proverb

I sincerely hope we can evolve our way of thinking and transform to be a more mindful, ecological race living in harmony with ourselves, each other and with nature, I would love to return this earth to our children, and inspire them to seek awe and beauty through it.