Deference in the face of natural elements — the clear sense that the animate terrain is not just speaking to us but also listening to us — bears out Merleau-Ponty's thesis of perceptual reciprocity; to listen to the forest is also, primordially, to feel oneself listened to by the forest. To see the world is also to experience one's own vulnerability, to feel oneself seen.
— David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous