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Today's
Meditation:
I love this sentence and I love what it tells us, but
I seem to forget the truth of the statement constantly.
And when I forget it, I'm not nearly as aware of the
beauty and calming properties of the things that nature
has given to us. Sometimes, in times of clarity,
I've been able to allow nature to wash over me with its
messages of peace and acceptance and eternity; other times
I can go for a walk in a beautiful natural setting and not
hear any of the messages that the trees and rivers have
for me.
I do know that my awareness of these messages is much
stronger when I'm alone, too. It's like when I'm
having a great conversation with another person, and a
third person gets involved-- the conversation changes, and
we've lost the connection that we had originally. My
connection with nature is much, much stronger when I pay
close attention to it and try to be receptive to my
surroundings and their messages.
There are messages in the rocks and rivers, and they're
not just metaphorical. As humanity travels down the
road it's currently on, we pull ourselves further and
further away from nature, and we spend more and more time
in our houses, our cars, the stores we shop at and the
buildings where we work. Time with nature is more of
a luxury than a necessity, whereas when we think about it,
it should be just the other way around.
I took a class outdoors to do some writing once, and one
of the students said that she couldn't hear the birds
singing at all. She had never been in the woods, and
she couldn't hear their songs because she had no practice
in listening for them. It's important that we not be
that way, and that we keep our connection with this earth,
which should be just as much a part of our lives as we are
of its life.
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