Time for Nature is more essential than ever in today’s society. After all, advanced technology lures us into an unconscious false sense of empowerment. The world remains at our fingertips. At any given point in time through our smart phones, we can access information, contact someone from another continent, shop, sell, document our lives in meticulous fashion. It lends to the illusion that we, as humans, bear control.
Or so we may believe. Because the stark reality is no one will ever possess this sort of power in life…at least not for long.
But a trip alone into nature, device-free, restores balance. It can reveal our fragility and fears, as well as our wonders.
Immersed in nature, we are no longer empowered. Rather, we are free.
The winters are cold in Annapolis, Maryland. Regardless, I bundle up from head to toe and escape into dusk’s magic. At this time, day willingly grows its soul by letting go. Alone, I enter nature’s terrain and do the same. I leave behind my world.
Nature is one wild powerful entity, and some evenings I want to fly with her expanse. And so, every breath connects with the wind. Then, it merges into clouds moving mindful against a canvas of grays.
I am here, and there. Alive.
Other times, winter’s skyline flares with creative royal colors. My imagination rises to the occasion, as ideas visit me like graceful planets. I cradle them in my palms.
The mind will remember if only I am present.
When I feel fragile, I focus on bare trees which harbor a strength I do not know. One that has lasted centuries and lived to tell. Leaves have fallen. Branches tremor, naked. But the tree trunks neither waver or mourn. Solid as the earth they stand, reminding me to ground my soul.
I breathe in deep and find the place where my trunk stills. I am strong too.
Dusk hands over its reign to the night. I hear her weighted breath. Still, she whispers that darkness brings gifts if only I pause to appreciate them. And so I gaze with respect.
Sure enough, spotty firstborn stars shimmer. My worries float to them. After all, the stars are far and can handle the burn. And if not the stars, the emerging moon will tuck my problems into luminous craters.
Both the stars and the moon are kind enough to leave me in the light.
I return to my house, a structure to protect from Nature.
But the home I’ve built within is Nature.
Strong. Free. Peaceful.
My soul is one with her.
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Time for Stillness
If you liked Time for Nature, you may enjoy reading Time for Stillness. It is one of my most popular posts on Mom Soul Soothers.
Soundtrack:
I wrote Time for Nature while listening to this lovely meditative music.
