Walk outside, close your eyes, and take a breath. Not just any breath, but a deep breath so you feel your body calm, and your mind rest for a moment. Take a few if you must. You begin to discern the sun’s rays hitting your skin and the water in the Florida air. You hear a bird calling for another or smell floral aromas dancing with the breeze.
Welcome to your Umwelt.
Umwelt is derived from the German word “environment” and was described by Jakob von Uexküll in the early 1900s as an animal’s perceptual world. Think of a sensory bubble, where from one animal to another, each is detecting, interpreting, and experiencing the world around them in a different way.
Ed Young shares this and more in the introduction of his new book An Immense World. I, like so many others since Youngs’ book release, immersed myself in our Umwelten. With Young’s descriptive and captivating narrative, his ability as a storyteller illuminated my imagination, challenging what I thought was ‘typical,’ and making me think more about my everyday experiences.
For example, Conservation Foundation has many partners throughout our community, including Easterseals Southwest Florida. Through birding, hikes, art, curated lessons, and more, we engage neurodiverse and disabled persons in nature which provides them the opportunity to experience their Umwelt intentionally. Despite the fact that we are all human, their sensory abilities are vastly different than mine and we experience our Umwelten differently. When I gaze out onto the Bay I can see the cloud’s reflection on the water and hear the crashing of the waves, while one of our partner participants can smell the Sealife in shallow waters and feel the waves breaking on the shore. “Perhaps people who experience the world in ways that are considered atypical,” Young writes, “have an intuitive feeling for the limits of typicality.”
Engaging our community in nature or protecting land and water for our benefit, Conservation Foundation strives to create a place where people and nature flourish together. We each have the opportunity to engross ourselves in the Umwelten of our region. The acres of land we protect forever give wildlife like a Florida Panther the space it needs to live a full life -approximately 200 square miles! And another endangered species like the Florida Scrub Jay healthy and thriving forests because they can only survive in the Florida “scrub.”
Acclaimed sources, including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, listed An Immense World as one of the best books of 2022. After a few pages, I quickly realized the impact this piece can have on those that engage with it. Stepping into other Umwelten is our greatest sensory challenge. As Young shared, the curiosity and imagination we as humans possess provide us the opportunity to step into another’s world, and it is a gift we must cherish. With every acre of land Conservation Foundation protects, we preserve the Umwelten of every animal and human that call our region home, and create a place for all to flourish, forever.
To learn more about conservation and the opportunity to support the work we do in honor of your Umwelt, visit us at conservationfoundation.com.
