Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott.
It's one of those days that goes from sunshine to dark clouds and rain and back to sunshine again.
It feels as though the weather just can't make up its mind and I'm out in the village so you might hear the occasional car go by as I reflect on this very autumnal day.
And one of the things I want to share with you today is about the nature of being human.
It seems to me as though we are spiritual beings having a human experience,
Or maybe a better way of phrasing it is we are the spiritual essence of the universe taking form as individual human beings.
So rather than each of us having our own little spiritual essence,
Are actually formed from the same universal energy.
And one of the things about being human is that we.
.
.
Forget this.
That's part of the human experience.
We forget it and then we remember and then we forget it and then we remember.
And it kind of reminds me of these autumn leaves.
I don't know if you can hear them as I scrunch through them.
They're all over the ground at the moment.
The winds are bringing them down off the trees and it's a constant clearing up for me outside our house to try and prevent the leaves blocking up our drain.
So I'm often out with a brush and a bucket trying to clear away the leaves,
Trying to keep our drains from blocking up and then flooding when the rains come down.
And it reminds me a little bit of this constant way that I keep forgetting.
I keep forgetting being a spiritual being.
I get lost in the human experience.
I get distracted by thoughts and stories.
I start looking at a future that I get scared about.
I investigate the past.
And dig up the past and feel low about things that have happened.
I get lost.
It's like I'm constantly distracting myself with anything other than being present,
Looking within and remembering who I truly am.
And for me,
It's a little bit like the autumnal leaves.
I can clear up a bucket or two buckets and clear away the leaves from my front door,
But the next day they're down again.
And there's nothing wrong in that.
And that's the bit I think I want to share with you today is don't be hard on yourself when you keep forgetting.
Don't be hard on yourself,
We all do it.
But just be patient and clear up another bucket load of leaves and you will find that eventually you will more and more often notice when you are lost in the human experience and remember more quickly and stay more often in that space of settledness,
Of clarity,
Of not being distraught.
Distracted So today's reflection is all about being human,
And I would love to know your reflections on this.
What is it like for you being human?
Do you get this sense of being connected to a spiritual life force,
The universal energy,
That actually it's not you as an individual making your way through life,
But you are actually connected to something that is taking form through you?
And if so,
When you have a glimpse of that,
Do you also realize that it's very human to forget that.
And the temptation can be,
If you don't realise that it's just the nature of being human and we do forget,
The temptation can be to be really hard on ourselves,
To beat ourselves up,
To say,
I should know this by now.
But the invitation today is,
Don't do that.
Be kind with yourself.
You will forget and it's okay.
And when you remember again,
You're back on solid ground.
You're back in touch with who you truly are.
So let me know your reflections today on being human.
Do you find that you keep forgetting and then keep remembering the truth of who you are?
Don't give up.
It's a bit like clearing up the autumn leaves.
Just keep going.
Being human is like the leaves falling down and forgetting,
But then you clear up a bucket of leaves and you're back to clarity again.
Don't give up.
Be kind on yourself.
Let me know your reflections.
And of course,
Don't forget to join me again tomorrow.
I'll be back with another five minutes in nature.
