All of the rain and stormy weather we’ve been having lately has me feeling enveloped by nature. Despite the sleepless nights due to rattling windows (we live in a nearly 100-year-old house) and the sounds of snapping branches (surrounded towering trees that are at least as old), I feel oddly comforted by it all because I am reminded that nature — all that is natural, inherent, and essential — is not just some wilderness that exists out there to be studied and emulated, like yeah I ought to be more like that flower, or that lion, or that river, or whatever. But rather, I already am exactly like that flower, that lion, and that river.
Like the flower, there is a time for blooming, and there is a time for dying.
Like the lion, there is a time for running, and there is a time for resting.
Like the river, there is a time for flowing furiously, and there is a time for softly trickling.
It all just is… and we are no exception.
When we see things or contemplate things like a flower, or a lion, or a river, we don’t ever consider them to be “good” or “bad” flowers, lions, or rivers based on well, anything at all, and certainly not because of what phase of the life cycle they happen to be in, or the rhythm of their movement, or the velocity or volume of their flow. They’re just doing what they do. But for some reason when it comes to us, we consider ourselves exceptional. We seem to think that nature’s phases, rhythms, and cycles do not apply to us, and that ought to be ________ (fill in the blank with your own “should”) all of the time. But of course we shouldn’t; it just isn’t natural. The laws of nature apply to us just the same.
I think so much of our personal suffering, struggle, and difficulty (I know this to be true for myself anyway) comes from our defiance of and resistance to nature, to what is natural.
“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” — Lao Tzu
If we turn in and go deep, all the way to our DNA, we can remember our true nature. I find meditation, practicing pranayama, going for a walk or run outside, mindfully moving my body, and looking up at the sky help me remember deep in my cells.
“Look at the stars. It won’t fix the economy. It won’t stop wars. It won’t give you flat abs, or better sex or even help you figure out your relationship and what you want to do with your life. But it’s important. It helps you remember that you and your problems are infinitesimally small and conversely, that you are a piece of an amazing and vast universe.” — Kate Bartolotta
Just like the rain, the sun, and the trees, you are part of the whole. You are vital; we need you.
Krystal Barschig 