While sitting on my deck the other morning drinking my coffee, a peregrine falcon landed on the branch above me. Huh, my mind went. That was beautiful. And then my mind flitted to the next thing. I trotted off to take my dog for a quick walk before I started my work day. Trucking through the woods, I noticed nature but didn’t pause to listen and express any greetings with the other living beings that also inhabit this earth with me. We walk alongside the plants, animals, land, water, and wind. Too often we give little reciprocity and reverence for all that they contribute to our existence. Remembering my desire to try to move a little bit more towards this intention, I stop and lean against a tree thanking it for all that it brings. Immediately my heart rate slows, my mind gets quieter, and the upward energetic movement of my body starts to remember the possibility of flowing downward. I intentionally allow the release in my low back, the unwinding of tension in muscles and feel into the blood moving down through the heart, through each organ, and eventually expanding into the belly. It continues to open up channels of life force like streams washing down through the legs, the feet, and into the earth. I momentarily find the reconnection to mother earth and feel her heartbeat.
As I turn to begin a much slower pace on the path, I see the blue heron across the lake. I sense into some effort as I try to understand what message she is bringing me. The channel still not quite open, I think I better get moving to get to work on time. So I begin my trek up the path towards home, and a white squirrel starts her way up a tree right in front of me. And I begin to speak to her. “Hello- I haven’t seen you in a while”, I say. It just pauses there for a bit as I get a little more contact with the natural world. Another hint to slow down and listen. The white squirrel has shown up many times on my path over the last few years. If you look up the medicine of the white squirrel, some traditions believe that the white squirrel is a sign that you should pay attention to your spiritual path and be open to receiving divine wisdom. Curiosity gets the best of me, so I check out the medicine of the peregrine falcon. This message is a bit similar in how it references that this raptor is a spiritual beacon calling one to eliminate distractions and rise above chaos. Huh, I start to acknowledge how my mind has been moving fast paced and struggling to slow down and listen. Then of course I look up blue heron medicine and things start to come together. This is something about trusting your own path, trusting in your own timing, and continuing to weed out the things that are not nourishing and stepping into the ones that feed the spiritual remembering. One last contact that morning. As I glance deeper in the woods, I see the gray squirrel sprawled out over a branch relaxing and taking in the sun. Maybe a little more of a nudge- to listen to my path and listen to what supports me to move in this world. Slow down, hang out, receive nourishment from the sun, stop worrying about accomplishing and not doing all the things on the to do list. Can’t say that I have completely stepped into all of this, yet. But I continue to work on honoring my own organization with some help from the natural world.
How about you? What does nature have to say to you? How often do you feel a bit of a hit- that nature is speaking to you? Do you blow it off? Do you then get another nudge a day later? What if we started to honor the communication between us and the Natural World? Join us at Amidst the Trees, we will guide you into listening to your internal wisdom as you connect with Nature. Lots of opportunities coming up, check out our website at www.amidstthetrees.com
