Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me,
Liz Scott.
It's quite a late evening up here on Dartmoor.
You can probably hear the sheep in the background.
The fern here is so high and tall.
The ferns stretch up on the hillside,
Giving them a rich,
Deep,
Dark green colour.
And that contrasts with the yellowy brown of the grass,
Which is just dying for a little bit of rain.
And today's reflection is all about the currency of love.
And it came about when my friend's young Labrador,
A black Labrador,
Escaped.
And he escaped,
And a couple of things happened at the same time.
A delivery driver left the gate open of their house,
And a deer just happened to run down the lane.
And the dog saw this,
Couldn't believe his luck,
Ran out of the gate and started chasing the deer.
And before they knew it,
The dog had run away and had disappeared and the couple and their children spent an anxious night looking for the dog.
They could not find him,
They did not sleep and in the morning they'd started to spread the word and I picked up the message that they'd lost their dog and I just,
My heart sank because well there's a busy road nearby,
There's a railway nearby and I just knew that whatever I I had planned for the day needed to be put on hold because I just wanted to get out and look for this dog.
That's all I wanted to do because I just knew how upsetting it must be.
And I wasn't the only one.
There was neighbours and friends,
The whole village,
Dog walkers in different villages heard as well,
And they were looking out for this dog.
And it was like people rose up in love and compassion to support my friend and their family.
In looking for this young black Labrador.
And the story ends well.
It took a lot of hunting and a lot of searching and eventually the dog was found in a farmer's field in a barn.
He'd obviously found a bit of safety and he was hunkering down there,
I guess trying to work out what to do next.
So they were very lucky he was found well and alive and they were just thrilled to have him back.
But what I'm left with during the day,
Not only am I totally relieved and I couldn't stop smiling when I heard the news that he'd been found.
But what I'm left with is this real sense of being part of something,
A loving rising of spirit to help someone in need.
Nobody was paid.
Nobody even thought of getting paid.
It was the spirit of wanting to help another human being.
And there were many people who weren't able to help because they had other commitments,
But they would have been there too if they could have.
And I felt this rich sense of nourishment at what I'm calling today the currency of love.
And it contrasts for me in the currency of money,
Which if you've listened to Insight Timer for a while with me now,
You'll know that I don't have an easy relationship with money.
I find it quite hard to I find it quite hard to understand that some people chase it like they do.
For me,
It's a means to an end.
It's very useful.
But yes,
It's like what's much more important for me is this currency of love.
And I felt like we did that today as a group of people,
As strangers,
Rising together to find this black Labrador dog.
And it was so good.
It was a happy ending.
And I'm just curious what you make of this,
This currency of love.
What do you make of that for you?
What does the currency of love mean for you?
Does it hold the same nourishment as it does for me?
That sense of people coming together to help someone in need.
That for me has been such an important part of my day.
And I'd love to know your reflections.
Forget to drop me a line to let me know what you think about the currency of love.
