Talking to Nature

All summer long I’ve been taking time to be in nature. When I’m by a stream, in the mountains, or just lying on the grass near my house; I let the mind quite a bit, open my heart and feel that there is a conversation going on. This is a conversation between my being and nature. Its a conversation without words, or even feelings, though it is through some level of feeling that I know it is happening.

While I don’t know what the contents of this conversation are, I know deeply that it is nurturing and helpful to me as a soul living in a human body. I can guess that I am being reminded of how the natural world works, outside of mind and human construction. It is connected, and we are meant to be connected. It is grounded and that is good for us as well. It is fluid and moving, rather than stuck. It is full of innate wisdom and knowing, so that nothing needs to be figured out.

Most of the universe operates without the use of an analytic mind. I am being reminded of this, perhaps invited to remember and bring into awareness ways of navigating life that don’t involve planning and analyzing. Not that these don’t have their place and usefulness, but too much and you wear yourself out.

Watching the full moon in August rising from the plans of Colorado, hazy pink in the moist evening air, gradually becoming clearer and brighter as it floats into the evening sky. I am in the foothills looking east, surrounded by nature, and suddenly I have a clear sense of the natural matrix, which waits to hold me, orient me, support me. It is a different matrix from the lights and roads I see out on the plains; part of the matrix of the universe, rather than that of the human mind. Remembering this and opening into it is a profoundly joyful experience.

Driving around town as the summer days slowly fade into fall, I notice the trees, the sky, the grass finally brown after a summer of green. I am aware of the cars and what I am doing, but I allow my heart to reach our and connect to nature. Both matrices are here, woven through each other, and I find centering and joy in one, even while I navigate the other. I believe that they do not need to be at odds, but it is clear that as we yearn to bring our higher larger self into awareness, into our life, talking to nature, reconnecting to its universal matrix of spirit, reminds us and teaches us what we need to know.

So allow yourself to find nature around you, even in the cities it is there if you look. Open to it, align with it, and let it talk to you and teach you. Remembering you will find more joy and become more fully human.

(© 9/2010)