I had to look it up in the dictionary recently, just to feel that it was the right word to describe what I was after. It was. Essence, the absolute identity of something at its core. The essential, the natural, native… Living. Not divorced or separate from humans, we are of nature ourselves.
If beings from other worlds rocked up, they too would be of nature and by the same definition have nature of their own. Stones, bugs, water, quarks, me, you and him and her, we’re all nature. Natural? Now that’s another thing altogether!