Petra Weldes and the Center for Spiritual Living, Dallas

In Praise of Nature...

Hiking in the mountains of Colorado, once again I feel my soul expand. I find that I don't feel the need to fiqure things out, my mind is quieter, and my heart is less guarded. Yesterday I sat in a meadow overlooking three beaver ponds that cascaded through a lovely valley and I pondered why it feels so different out here.

In the woods, fields, beaches and mountains of our beautiful planet, we are invited into a different relationship with life than we have in our suburban and urban lives. In our cities, in our buildings and down our streets most things are straight lines with definite angles, hard materials, static, and everything is rushing to get somewhere else. We create and value structure, order, consistency, permanence, progress and stability. Living in this as our primary life environment I think our minds and hearts start to embody and reflect the environment we daily find ourselves in. Unfortunately when this becomes the ONLY way we experience life, we can become rigid, stilted, stagnant, stressed and afraid of chaos and change.

As Spiritual Beings have a human experience, we are designed to grow and change. Our greatest inherent ability is our imagination and creativity. Our hearts are soft, our bodies are sensuous, our minds are curious, and our spirits seek freedom and self-expression. To express ourselves to our fullest, an environment that nurtures, supports and maintains space for this essential reality is required.

In the wilds everything is round, soft, flowing, waving, and growing. The rocks and mountains provide the backbone and structure upon which a verdant, teeming life is expressed. Walking through this reality is restful to the eye and peaceful to the soul. Everything simply is what it is. Each tree, flower, rock and stream simply is, simply being, and sharing itself without asking for or needing anything in return.

The most important thing I realized while I was sitting in the meadow, watching the clouds sail in a incredibly azure sky, playing shadow games with the mountains is that here nothing is being demanded or taken. Nothing is required but to be. The delicate blue bell-like wildflowers dance in the breeze and offer their beauty. It doesn't matter if anyone sees. The mountains provide solidity and invite exploration simply by being there; whether one climbs or not is a purely personal choice. The trees provide a living, breathing container for life to express. I can feel their aliveness, yet they require nothing of me. They simply are.

All of this invites me into my own being. To simply BE -appreciating the life around me, soaking in the beauty that is offered, taking in whatever invitation appeals to me in the moment. To simply EXPRESS - without needing that expression to do anything other than come out of the truth of my being. This is the difference I find in Nature.

Emerson and Thoreau both spoke eloquently about the need for each person to tend their own woodlot. I've always wondered why. Now I know. It is to be in touch with the reality of being and expressing without needing anything to be other than it is. It is to invite us to continually husband the wild places, so that we may always have this breathing room. John Muir captured this beauty in his films and inspired the creation of our National Parks system. May you be inspired to be a steward and a lover of the wild places, so that this is available to our children's children's children.

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