Following Your Inner Nudges - January 10

Join Liz Scott for "Five Minutes in Nature" as she reflects on the wisdom of Dartmoor’s vast landscapes. From a windswept rock overlooking the English Channel, Liz explores the idea of life’s journey—its purpose, direction, and inevitable challenges. Using the metaphor of walking toward the distant sea, she delves into the feelings of uncertainty and perseverance that arise when we follow our calling. This reflection invites you to embrace the moments of lostness and trust in the path you are drawn to travel.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to five minutes in nature with me Liz Scott and this January I'm inviting you to join me daily for five minutes outdoors where I listen to nature's wisdom. And today I've walked up from my house up onto Dartmoor which is the moorland just above my house and I've come up a hill and I'm sitting on a rock and I'm looking out towards the ocean or more accurately the English Channel. The English Channel is the strip of water that separates England from the continent from France. So looking down it's probably about 10 miles away if I was a bird I could probably fly that in 10 miles. In the distance I can see the steely grayness of the water and it's mirroring the grayness of the clouds in the sky and it's really quite often that we get the southwesterly winds which is what's happening right now as I sit on my rock with my back turned to the wind. The southwesterly winds come off the Atlantic Ocean and bring with them dampness and wet and clouds and rain and we often see gray clouds where I live. So today as I look from my vantage point on the hillside out towards the sea I notice that even though it's quite a long way away I can see the ocean the sea from where I am sitting and I imagine in my mind what would it be like if I was to then go and walk to the sea from here. What would that journey be like if I decided to leave the hillside and without a map or a compass if I was to go and walk towards the ocean what would that be like? And I know that if I were to walk down towards the ocean I would come across different types of landscape and terrain. I would need to cross fields at this time of year it's very muddy I would need to go through muddy footpaths I'd need to cross streams and rivers and marshland and at times I no doubt would lose sight of my destination and would find myself feeling quite lost and tired and downhearted. From this vantage point seeing the sea in front of me it looks like it's an easy journey but is it? If I were to get started I would soon lose perspective of my destination and that's what I want to reflect on with you today is that we often get a sense of our purpose of our direction of travel like me sitting here looking at the sea and thinking I want to walk to the sea but often as soon as we start on our journey we find that the direction of travel becomes unclear the terrain gets tricky to navigate and we might lose sense of direction. Does that resonate for you? Do you have a sense of the direction of travel for yourself in your life and do you sometimes feel that you're lost or you don't know where you're going or you start to question your direction of travel? I want you to reflect on that today. Notice if you have a clear sense of where it is that you are being called to move towards like me sitting here on the rock feeling a nudge to walk towards the ocean and realize that by following that nudge you will inevitably find yourself in challenging situations and terrain and you will have feel a sense of lostness and you might feel lonely and stupid and questioning yourself and questioning yourself for trying to set out on that journey in the first place. So today the question is this what is your purpose what is the direction of travel you are being asked to step out into and maybe you've already stepped in that direction and are you feeling lost? Do you sometimes feel confused and concerned about the direction you've taken yourself in and isn't it good to know that even if we have a sense of direction it can sometimes feel lonely and isolated but that doesn't mean stop it just means that's part of the journey we all experience that we all experience that feeling of lostness but moving in the direction of where we are drawn is what we need to do