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Feeling
connected to the natural world connects us to the rhythms of
life. Get away! Any way you can. Walk, drive,
take a train or hop on a bus to a peaceful place where you can
enjoy the beauty of nature. In the winter, I go skiing
with my husband, and while I'm not that anxious to navigate my
way down some steep and winding slopes, I love taking the ski
lift up to the majestic mountaintop. I am awed when I
behold the magnificence that God has created all around
us. God's glory is everywhere: in a field of weeds
and wildflowers; in the stillness of the woods with the trees
arching over us; in a crystal lake lapping softly at the shore;
in the rustling of leaves, the scamper of little animals.
If you
can't escape to the country, you can still sit at your window
and watch the sky. You can watch the rain and the
snow. You can visit a nearby park and watch the foliage
change with each season. You can turn your face toward the
warmth of the sun or feel a gentle breeze whisper against your
skin. You can wonder at the changing patterns of light in
a summer sky, and feel the brisk tingle of snowflakes in a
winter storm. Revel in the knowledge that your senses are
finely attuned to these sensations of the natural world.
By staying in tune with nature, you nourish the eternal spirit
within, you come back to the center of life and to the awareness
that God is everywhere present at each moment in time.
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Our
beloved poet and sage Maya Angelou believes that every few weeks
we should take a day off to do absolutely nothing.
"What we really have to do is take a day and sit down and
think," she shared in a recent interview. "The
world is not going to end or fall apart. Jobs won't be
lost. Kids will not run crazy in one day. Lovers
won't stop speaking to you. Husbands and wives are not
going to disappear. Just take that one day and
think. Don't read. Don't write. No television,
no radio, no distractions. Sit down and think. . . . Go
sit in a church, or in the park, or take a long walk and
think. Call it a healing day."
How wise
Maya Angelou is. A healing day, a day just to sit and
think, a day in which you become still and experience each
precious moment of time. By learning to stay centered in
the moment, we put ourselves in charge. We experience the
joy of living, the wonder in each breath. If we take
control of the world within ourselves, no circumstance outside
us will have its way with us. When we live moment to
moment, we place ourselves at the center of life, where infinite
wisdom abides, rather than on the periphery, where things are
forever changing and we are susceptible to the vagaries of the
world. It is in our awareness each moment of our oneness
with God that our inner peace and greatest strength lie.
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