Hello and welcome to five minutes in nature with me Liz Scott and you find me at the cemetery.
This is where my dad is buried.
It was almost a year ago exactly he was buried and I've just come up to visit his grave.
It feels really special actually honouring where he was laid to rest.
I never thought I would appreciate having a spot that I could come and talk to him and be present to him but it's actually super and I've come up and I'm just admiring the flowers that my brother has recently put on the grave and it's just just good it's just good to be up here.
And today I'm reflecting on really what I want to take forward into the new year and today's reflection is about love.
My dad was an extraordinary dad.
He had a tough tough upbringing himself and didn't really learn how to parent from his dad or his mum.
They had nine children that survived and it was it was a hard life.
They struggled financially and it was during the war years where there was a lot of rationing and lack of food and my dad,
My dad struggled and yet he somehow learned how to be a dad and one of the things he taught me so strongly was about love and it's quite apt really because I'm I come up here and I'm just feeling a little bit unsettled a little bit frustrated that I've I asked a favour of a friend and she couldn't deliver the favour and just felt a little bit let down.
I've just come up I just know you see this is the beauty of knowing knowing about the nature of thought and upset it looks like my friend has let me down but she hasn't.
I'm just in upset thinking and feeling unsettled and I know to let it settle and I just know to allow that love which is ever-present to be felt and dad was such a great reminder of that of love choosing love particularly when it came to the family he always ensured that connection and communication were were continued at all costs and for me I take that forward as I reflect here that choosing love is so important.
Here on Insight Timer there's a course that I ran earlier in the year called Living from Love and Not Fear and I also had 30 days where I journaled Living from Love and Not Fear and that really feels like a strong reminder as I stand here in the cemetery as the daylight starts to get very dimpsy it's a damp cool day and my recollection of the course of choosing love not fear is that all those unsettled thoughts and feelings that rise and come over me like the clouds I can see in the in the sky at the moment they aren't who I truly am and as I allow myself to settle let those thoughts settle then all that's left is love and that's what I'm feeling right now with that sense of love and I just know that living life choosing love and not fear is something for me to continue as I move into 2026.
It's so important for me to recognize the distress and unsettledness I feel when I choose insecure thinking when I try and be right or I prove that I'm the martyr or I'm the one that does more than everybody else whatever the habitual thinking pattern happens to be at any one time and the truth is it doesn't matter what the story is the stories are always just stories and ultimately there's only one place where peace resides and it doesn't reside in getting someone to act a certain way or it doesn't reside in life turning out a certain way peace resides in realizing that what's ultimately important is love love is all there is love is the foundation of life so as I pause here in the cemetery and I see the flowers on the graves of so many people here I realize that those flowers are an expression of love and the flowers on my dad's grave are an expression of love and I know that choosing love being present to love is the nourishing space to stand in and that's what I'm being called to choose choose love so for me as I move into 2026 choosing love is one of the themes I want to continue weaving into my world and my life and I'm sure I'll come back to it on different occasions during the year and I know that when I choose love that's when I feel peace and it's okay to feel unsettled it's okay to feel upset those feelings pass but what's most important is choosing love
