Hello,
My name is Liz Scott,
And welcome to Five Minutes in Nature.
And my request is that you join me daily throughout January as I take you outside and find five minutes of reflection,
Listening to nature and her wisdom.
And today,
I've paused on a walk.
I've gone on a circular walk,
Which is taking me through farmland and meadows and beside a stream,
And I'm just about to head back towards a woodland now.
And I've stopped because beside me is an oak tree.
And there is something so special about an oak tree.
In the folklore of the Celts,
And the Celtic people were those people that used to live in this land 2,
000 years ago,
Before the Romans invaded.
The Celts,
Although they left no written record themselves,
We know that they saw the oak tree as sacred.
And there's something about an oak tree,
An oak tree in the landscape,
Even without its leaves,
As it stands here now in January,
There's something about an oak tree that fills me with awe.
And as I was walking along a very muddy and mucky footpath,
And I was squelching along in my Wellington boots,
I could see that stretching along the path at different places were the roots of the trees that I was walking beside.
So many feet had walked along the path that the path and the mud had worn away.
So the roots of the tree were visible.
And it got me thinking,
And as I pause now beside this beautiful oak tree,
It's got me thinking about roots,
About the roots of the trees and the roots of an oak tree.
And we see the trunk and we see the branches and we see the twigs that are so visible now that it is winter and the leaves are no longer on the tree.
And we see this so clearly above our heads,
But we rarely think about the roots that go beneath the ground.
And that's what I want to reflect on today.
That's the inspiration I'm taking from nature today.
And so with me,
I would like you to reflect.
I'd like you to imagine that your feet are rooted to the ground,
That your feet have roots that penetrate deep within the earth.
And I want you just to imagine and feel the strength and resilience that you have as you place your awareness,
Not in your feet,
But in the roots that you can imagine pushed down deep into the earth.
These roots are giving you stability.
Just feel the stability of those roots in the ground.
And of course,
Like the oak tree,
You are in the world and you show people your personality and your characteristics and you play your roles in the world.
Everything is visible to those that encounter you,
Of you in the world,
But what they don't see and what I want you to reflect on and feel today are the roots that you have that dig deep into the earth.
And those roots are holding you fast in place.
They are your foundation.
They are that which connects you to the whole of life itself,
The energy of life,
The wisdom of life,
The expansiveness of the life force energy.
It is deep within you,
In your roots,
In your soul,
And in your heart.
Can you feel that?
It's so powerful.
It's so good to reflect and to know that we are much more than what people see.
We are much more than what we project into the world.
We are deeply rooted and we can trust those roots.
And next time that you feel wobbly or you feel uncertain,
Bring your attention to your heart,
To the core of you,
And imagine that you have roots that run down deep into the ground.
They are giving you stability.
So let's thank the oak tree today for her wisdom in reminding us that we are deeply rooted to the earth.
