FINDING MYSELF AT PEACE WITH NATURE

Today we drove up to the in-law’s ranch—the place we’ve been spending our summers for the past 20 years. The place we’ve raised our kids in part—the part that’s been in nature.

On the wall in the hallway of the house are pictures of those summers—of our kids and those of the other grand kids—on the rope swing flying in the air above the water of the swimming hole, performing skits on the deck behind the house, parties with the kids swinging sticks at a pinata—those kinds of joyous summer activities.

Today it was just the adults walking the dogs on the quiet road leading down to the creek after lunch.

The one thing, which remained the same as all those busy summer days, was the bigness of nature up there in the Mendocino Forest. The quiet, the stillness of nature.

I found a moment today where I sat along on the deck in the sun just looking out across the valley towards the trees on the other side. I felt a familiarity with the place and I realized that the familiarity I felt was with nature itself—with the and the stillness that resonates with the quiet and stillness inside me—inside us all.

It is always wonderful to me when I recognize that state of being where my consciousness reflects the consciousness of nature. What is more perfect, more blissful than that? To be aware of being a small part of the huge cosmos. Moments like that happen for me when the world becomes quiet and unhurried.

I recognize that feeling when I’m in a place where the world has retreated and asks nothing. Where I feel no need to compete or to create something new or follow through on some idea I might have—that place where I really don’t want to DO anything at all but Be.