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I felt the affinity with nature in certain ways when I was in my late teens and early twenties. Mostly I felt it in forests, and particularly in forests with big, old trees. Like very many people on the Spiritual Forums, I took up the practice of meditation - sitting meditation - to quiet my mind and emotions and explore my inner life, because I couldn't always be walking in a forest.
I've told this story elsewhere on the Nature forum here, but anyway... I had an injury and while it was healing I took a course in Reiki, which is a healing and spiritual path. The course involves an "attunement" in which you are introduced to the energy, which remains accessible to you afterwards.
This little process unexpectedly acted to clear away many emotional foul-ups that had remained in me since childhood and adolescence. It had been emotional stuff that I had never been able to completely resolve - fears, confusions, feelings of sadness and guilt, inner conflicts. After my attunement, both the emotional junk and the walls I had made to defend myself from the world just dissolved - quite a bit so. One effect was that my sense of intimacy with nature (birds, dogs, horses, and other creatures) noticeably increased. Little song birds began to perch on my head when I meditated outdoors - which I enjoyed. Of course, relations with people got much better too.
Like I said at first, I used to meditate for the purpose of quieting my mind - but I now start from a pretty quiet inner state. I think this inner state is what the birds and horses sense in me now.
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