Old post for the folks at Nourishing Storm Wellness.  See whats new and good with them here.

Nature never fails to inspire me. She always shares her wisdom with those who stop to listen. In those wild and untouched places I feel wild and untouched by worry and judgement. I feel free. Whatever great force that pushed the willow up from the muddy banks before me, that painted the leaves of the mallow in shocks of pink, that moves the air across the lake in a dance of ripples and light, that force made me as well. How wonderful is that?

It’s so hard for me not to see the magic of life. Life is found in the magic.  I see life quite clearly in the meadows, beaches and woods and the rhythms of nature. Life looks vibrant and green, broken by the yellow goldenrod, the orange monarch wing, the blue sky when the Summer King rules the day. It looks lazy like Spanish moss, languid and hot, dripping from the oaks.  Life looks like snow-cloaked evergreens standing silent when winter blankets the land. Life looks like the shy awakening of pastel flowers in the spring and like the warm embers that smolder in leaves in the fall. It looks jagged and unmovable like mountains and soft and forgiving like sand.

Nature has been my most favorite teacher of life. I am in awe of her. She has shown me beauty beyond compare. And terror too. I’ve seen the violence the elements can bring. I am not blind to it. I’ve seen life fulfilled by death in the wild.  Even in its harshness, life is no less wonderful to me.  I know there is some great intelligence moving through it all though I do not know how it came to be.

I only know that space holds the stars and every dream and made a sound that birthed the wind’s song, and I have ears that were made to hear it. And the wind sparked a fire that lit the day and I have eyes that were made to see it. And the fire brought warmth to draw the waters from the sky and I have a tongue that was made to taste it. And the waters fell and cooled and this land formed that can hold all of life, and I have a nose that was made to smell the richness of the earth and to breathe it in and be one with it all. Yes, how wonderful is that?

I haven’t stumbled down the rabbit’s hole. I don’t need to fall to see. In my Soul I know there is no where else but wonderland. Or maybe I’ve gone mad? That’s fine by me. I’ve heard all the best people are.

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.” ~ Albert Einstein