Today, I listened to a beautiful poem by Mary Oliver about connecting with nature and how we can respond to our surrounding by recognizing that we are all interconnected. The trees breathe…we breathe, plants receive nourishment from the sun and the earth…we receive nourishment from the plants and the earth.
How often do we connect with what is truly in our nature: to be kind, loving, open and vulnerable. This is the path towards connecting with the life that’s here. When we practice mindfulness we free ourselves and in that moment are connecting with everything around us, with nature and with our wholeness. Instead of turning away from our dislikes or clinging to our wants, we simply allow ourselves to connect with the world both within us and externally.
What often gets in the way are our judgments, stories, opinions, thoughts, etc. When we learn to allow the chatter to recede into the background, come home to our body through sensation and breath, when we open our senses to truly connect with all that is around us, even if just for a few minutes, we are practicing mindfulness and living in the moment.
Take a few minutes to practice mindfulness. As you read the poem below visualize yourself in nature or better yet go there! Open all of your senses and connect with the life that is right here…
When I Am Among the Trees
When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks, and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”
Mary Oliver