Earth Day
Let’s begin by affirming that every day is Earth Day. We are nature, our lives are intimately held within the web of life on our beautiful planet.
At this time, we are called so clearly into the remembering of ourselves in an honourable and respectful relationship to this web of life.
Because of the lockdown, everything has come to a stop. Nature is flourishing in places where there’s usually too much noise, light, pollution. And there’s a quality that’s specifically available right now that isn’t necessarily always available to us unless we happen to be out in the wild. There’s a stillness, a quietness, a quality of energy that’s in the field. There’s a difference in how the elements around us are expressing themselves.
It’s as if the volume has been turned up on nature and turned down on the business of humanity.
This place of receptivity stillness is a gift of the lockdown. At this potent time, there is an invitation to turn inward, to be more reflective. This is true, even if your home situation feels intense and chaotic, with children and partners at home during the day.
Begin a practice today, this Earth Day. Take time, even 5 minutes, to go outside, into your garden if you have one and if not, then sit by a window and just look out. If you are lucky enough to have access to a garden or wild outdoor space, go barefoot.
Allowing stillness to be your gateway, simply gaze at nature – at a flower, at an insect, at a pot plant. Our sense of vision is usually switched ON, and our eyes are active, engaging our brain in understanding, judging and labelling what we see. Flip your sense of vision, now, into receptive mode, so that you are receiving the vibrational quality of what you are looking at. Feel it in your body, so it becomes a felt sense, kinaesthetic.
Ask yourself this simple question “What is this life, that I am looking at now?”. Let the answer arise, unjudged, as a feeling in your body, as you remember yourself again, into deep relationship with a flower, an insect, a pot plant, a blade of grass. Let that relationship nourish you and the world around you.