Making time to dwell entirely in the moment, notice our feelings and relationship to our surroundings, is difficult enough, but finding the silence to actually enjoy it is another matter. Try it with a rambunctious 4-year-old.
Ideally, after having made that wonderful time-stretching trip to the sanctuary, I'd have driven peacefully back home to reconsider and apply to my life what I'd learned. Instead, I drove to my former home-state, Louisiana, to help my daughter Lily and her daughter Emma to move here to northern California. Emma drove what turned out to be a rather emotionally grueling 4 days with me in my little car, as she had no concept of such distance. "Are we in California yet?" she continued to ask after we'd finally reached our huge state.
Every philosophy of substance reminds its practioners that we have no control of the circumstances in which we are often caught up and to cultivate instead the mindset that allows us to find peace within ourselves in spite of our surroundings.
Easy to say. Not so easy to do, especially in our more typical whirlwind existences that tend to be out of touch with that which we are trying to BE: authentic. . . here. . . now. . . close to nature.
But I do know this: It is easier for me to find peace when I'm surrounded by nature, when I'm as close to the natural rhythms of life as possible, than it is when I am caught in the mindless goings-on of the typical modern person who looks for things to arrange or buy or do, things that fill their spaces, their time, things that eat up our souls and leave no residue but regret.
It's even easy to use nature as a thing when we drive to a plant nursery, buy the flowering lovelies, and arrange them in our little yards. . . that is, if we are not present, if our attitude is one of "hurry-let's-do-this" instead of "grateful-for-being-in-this moment."
Yes. Gratitude is a key, and gratitude comes with the stretching of the moment in a soulful quiet that allows us to see the wonders that surround us in the natural world.
