Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me,
Liz Scott.
And every day in February I bring you out and about,
Listening to nature's wisdom.
And today I'm in Exeter.
It's the city I grew up in and it's the city where my mum still lives.
And I've brought you up to the cemetery here in Exeter because this is where my dear dad is buried.
And you might be able to hear a bit of birdsong around me.
His grave is actually beside a little wooded area and I just delight in knowing that he is beside this area where there will be wildlife and birds.
That I kind of envisage,
Look out for him and look over him.
And I can see cattails growing on the trees and up here spring is springing and we have planted different bulbs on his grave so there are daffodils coming through and primroses and there are some snowdrops still clinging on at this time of year and it just actually looks really pretty.
I'm really touched by how beautiful it is here.
And I know that maybe bringing you up to a graveyard or bringing you to a cemetery might seem like a strange thing to do.
And certainly as I look around and I see the gravestones,
Hundreds and hundreds of gravestones,
It does sometimes have that sense or can feel a little bit austere or morbid.
And yet that's not what I feel at all whilst I'm here.
And as I look across this graveyard,
I realise that all these gravestones represent people and I realise that all of these people,
All of these people that are laid to rest here over the past few years and some go back to the 1800s so it goes back quite a way,
But all of these people were a part of a web of life,
Of family and of friends.
And some of the graves are tended well and there are fresh flowers on them and some of them are not so well tended and I imagine that maybe the people that once tended those graves,
Well they too have passed on.
And I'm not here to be morbid because I don't feel morbid as I look across this cemetery.
Instead I realise that life is really so very precious.
It's so easy to get bogged down,
Certainly I do,
In the everyday minutiae of life.
Maybe I'm late for something or I'm annoyed at a driver that is not acting responsibly on the road when I'm driving.
Maybe somebody hasn't phoned me back or I've got cold soup or a cold cup of coffee when I've gone out to treat myself.
All of these little things seem to cause frustration in my world and yet when I come to this cemetery and I just settle in myself and I see these lives of people that are represented by gravestones,
I realise how fleeting life is and how precious and special life is.
And it has me reflect on my life and living my life.
And more and more recently I've realised that for me,
My life to be nourishing and to be lived with a sense of purpose is a life that is deeply reflective.
I look within,
I feel that ever-present sense of love and contentment within me.
I don't rush and I don't speed,
I find myself slowing down as I look within.
And from that place I listen for my intuition and my guidance to nudge me in the direction to travel.
It's cold here as I stand here in the cemetery in Exeter,
But actually what a gift to be able to feel the cold.
What a gift to be able to come out,
Come outside and admire and wonder at the trees that are surrounding me and the birds that are singing around me.
Life is a gift to be cherished,
It's not something to be rushed through.
And when I come to this place I really recognise the importance of savouring life.
And that's my invitation for you too,
Savour your life,
It is so precious and ensure that you look within and respond from that place of love and care and compassion within you as you live your life and your purpose.
