Nature

There is an offering in nature that is so subtle.  It starts as a gentle welcoming home, then blossoms into an invitation for you to further welcome yourself home.  It is not the trees, the sky, the insects, the flowers, the dirt or the mycelium, but the Whole.  All together, and there you are as one of the whole. Not alone but All One. 

Often, the walking meditation on hikes starts off as a checklist of things I can do that I intuitively have known but hasn’t made it to the foreground of my mind or top of my priority list.  Things I know will put me more at ease and feel a greater sense of peace, but that don’t fit in with the normal lifestyle of today’s busy pace and mindless, endless responsibilities. Once I’ve spent some time in this state, the meditation drops deeper.  Reminding me of the Absolute Beauty in all that is.  That all you must do is open your eyes and all is more perfect that even fathomable.  That the divine orchestration puts all in it’s exact right order.  It’s comical how perfect everything really is, but that we all run around trying to control everything as if we really have some say.

That’s not to say we don’t play a part.  We have our unique roll and responsibility.  Just as every tree makes up a forest and every drop makes up the ocean, we each make up the collective human consciousness.  It is important and valuable to contribute everything you can.  Contribute creativity.  Contribute sustainability.  Decide to recycle, compost, repurpose, innovate.  These things are not only transmuting your life into living with purpose.  But also paving a path for others to see the way into contributing something meanful and helpful in this lifetime. 

I spend some time wallowing in the beauty and having all these thoughts, when all at once the thoughts are gone.  I’m just there present in the moment.  Feeling my body. Allowing sensations to wash over me.  The smell of the sun baked dirt.  The ache of my feet after miles of elevation gain.  The sound of ravens squawking and gurgling.  All of it without judgement or labels.  Just experience.  

Despite the intention to meditate at the top of the mountain, that notion is gone.  By the time I’ve reached the top every meditative moment has been had through the hours of elevation gain and terrain tromped upon. I’m already in the bliss of the present moment so all there is to do is just Be.  The journey and the destination become One. 

Nature provides the space to be in your Power.  Nature is always in it’s power.  It doesn’t know doubt or worry.  It’s not comparing itself to anything.  It is simply Being.  From that center all the flourishing, blossoming, dying, and rebirthing is allowed it’s process.  We are allowed that process as well.  We are allowed to come as we are in our natural glory and power.