The Scripture of Nature

The phrase "the scripture of nature" comes from then Atlantic Monthly writer Fitzhugh Ludlow. I heard it in one of the lovely PBS National Parks films by Ken Burns. A perfect phrase for the profound feelings and healing energies of spending time in nature.

Go out into the natural world. When I started doing that as a child, I noticed the deep stillness behind the rustling leaves and gurgling stream, behind the sounds of birds and insects. The profound, awesome still presence of nature has always been my favorite experience.

Going out into nature was my way to meditate as a young person, though I did not have those words. I felt it though, much the same way I now also feel the calm witness presence in me when I meditate.

We live in the world. We are it and it is us. We are as beautiful as the Eagle Nebula. We are as powerful as the sun. We are as eternal as consciousness.

Lift your perspective to the birds in flight. Be as tenacious as a green shoot pushing up between slabs of concrete. Live in the flow like a river winding its way through obstacles. The Tao Te Ching says “The highest good is like water. It flows in places people disregard. It does not strive.”

And as for diversity – oh my! How lovely if humanity could live like a forest or meadow – many species of trees or wildflowers living in dynamic harmony. Each one claiming its space but without need to eradicate the other kinds around it.

Truly, whether we thinks of ourselves as spiritual or religious people or not, being in nature restores something essential to the human spirit.

Or, as the Seer of the Sierras, John Muir put it (also found in one of the National Parks films):

 “The eye of the poet or seer never closes on the kinship of all God’s creatures and his heart ever beats in sympathy with great and small alike as Earthborn companions and fellow mortals equally dependent on Heaven’s eternal Love.”

Go getcha some Love out in nature this week!