40 Days of Peace Day Eight
Adopt the pace of Nature..
her secret is patience. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JONATHAN CUMMINGS… VIEW MORE OF HIS NATURE ART HERE
In order to cultivate PEACE, we must commune with Nature
When we spend a lot of time in nature, our perception of time seems to shift. The busyness of our manufactured lives begins to fade away as we sit still with Her.
I could sit and watch nature endlessly. I could sit outside and find a million things to entertain my time with Nature. Currently, Monet and I are staying on my families farm and I pretty much know all the animals by name. There’s a sweet family of deer that live in the woods behind the house. The two fawn joined the family last year and I’ve watched them grow up, eating their supper in the field every night. Observing nature helps me slow down and have more patience.
Chaos has been my middle name most of my adult life. Being on medications for a decade didn’t help anything. The synapsis in my brain were destroyed and organizing my thoughts, my space, my work.. heck, just about any kind of organizing was hell. I knew my way around my chaos and could function, but “functioning” isn’t our purpose here. We’re made to flow in a natural rhythm and nature has been the only teacher to help me with this issue.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JONATHAN CUMMINGS…
VIEW MORE OF HIS NATURE ART HERE
We have a family of owls who made their home in the woods and on my brothers birthday earlier this month, I swear they were singing him a song. My brother’s favorite thing to do is to sit by a fire and I second that! I love it when he wants to build a fire and I could sit by a fire every night. In fact, in my perfect world, I live outside and sit by a fire every night. Campfire is my favorite smell!
We used to end all our days with the fire. Fire is a sacred medicine and part of our natural circadian rhythm has been disrupted since those days. Instead, most humans watch a screen before bed. I’m guilty as we all are, sitting in front of a screen tonight writing this journal entry. But I know the truth and part of my dream for my journey ahead.. is to sit by a fire more at night and spend less time on screens. I know my Spirit feels more at home when I am surrounded by nature. Her medicine calls my name! She helps me slow down and listen.
We lived at Standing Rock from September to February so we were able to live outside in summer, fall and winter. It was the most amazing experience of my life. I’m grateful for the roof over my head and hot showers, but the time I spend completely immersed in nature teaches me more and brings me more joy that any house ever has. I’m not saying its the life for everyone but I do know we’re created to spend way more time in nature than we do. I’m guilty of not being in nature as much since we’ve been in Georgia and part of my vow is to make more time by the fire, take more hikes and sit under the trees more often.
Nature teaches us to slow down and be patient with ourselves too! We’re so pushed for a “quick fix”, a “magic pill” to just solve our problems… but that isn’t how healing works. Every “magic pill” that numbs our pain is just prolonging our healing. We are meant to feel things and yes, some things are so damn painful that our brains actually send a message to “get out”. We can disconnect in the middle of a trauma.
When I was going through my years of abuse, my Spirit would leave my body… like a dream ( a bad one) I would hover above myself watching but unable to control anything. There are so many periods of my life that are simply missing. I struggle with knowing dates or remembering what age I was when things happened. I try to pull up memories but they are simply lost. Those were times when my Spirit pulled away to protect me because it was too painful. My body knew naturally what to do.
When I got sober from the medications I really thought I was going to be all healed in no time. I started yoga and meditation. I read every book that Spirit led me too…. and every time I thought I had “arrived” at my holy destination, I would cycle around again to my trauma and inevitably unravel at the seems.
“The healing process is best described as a spiral. Survivors go through the stages once, sometimes many times; sometimes in one order, sometimes in another. Each time they hit a stage again, they move up the spiral: they can integrate new information and a broader range of feelings, utilize more resources, take better care of themselves, and make deeper changes.”
The healing journey is a spiral… similar to another shape we see in all of nature…
The fibonacci sequence~ spiral. It seems we can’t escape our Divine relationship with nature. So, let’s follow her lead and be patient with ourselves. The feelings of being a “failure” or not good enough are false ideas that come from fear. And remember.. there is only LOVE. Fear is the enemy… you need to tell it to get on outta’ the way!
BE STILL AND LISTEN
BE BRAVE AND BELIEVE
Love yourself and as you lean into whatever YOUR Spirit is calling you to, be gentle and compassionate and patient with yourself. This isn’t a race where we win a prize at the end. Find you joy in the journey… and tis’ the season for fires. I hope I can sit around one with you one day soon.
Shams of Tabriz’s 40 Rules of Love
