Hello and welcome to five minutes in nature with me Liz Scott on a very cold January day in England.
And you can probably hear that it is raining.
Yep,
We get a lot of rain here in Devon in the southwest of England and today is no exception.
And one of the things that is very true about the weather here in the southwest is that it can be very damp and cold.
So the temperature is probably a few degrees above freezing but it really feels heavy and damp and gets right to your bones and today is no exception.
But it's always lovely on these sorts of days to see those shoots of life starting to come through because January is the time when there is both the mixture of fresh new shoots and also the old growth that is decaying back into the earth.
Both are true here in the middle of January.
And I love it because these little green fingers of new life as they poke through the soil just remind me of the real power of new beginnings.
Isn't it wonderful to know that new beginnings start small and these shoots as they come up through the leaf litter that is starting to mush back into the earth,
Back into the soil,
It's almost like you can see both life and death living side by side.
And the wonderful thing about these new shoots as they come through the earth,
Particularly at this time of year,
Is that I know that spring is coming and I know that a plant here is growing but I don't know what is growing.
The shoot itself is just a tiny little fingery spear of greenness and at some point it will blossom into a flower and the leaves will start to take form and it will differentiate into something that is recognizable.
And it's so tiny and fragile and these beautiful fragile signs of life are ever present.
For me they are a deep reminder that there is life even in the midst of winter.
And it's also a reminder that we don't know what small beginnings of life are starting within us.
Life of ideas,
Of expressions in the world,
Of articulations in the world,
Of speech in the world,
Of writing,
Of drawing,
Of creativity.
In whatever form your creativity takes there are new beginnings within you that will start to take form.
And what I love is that in the same way as we can't see at the moment what these plants,
These green shoots are going to become,
We also don't know what those green shoots of creativity will form in our world.
Maybe you are good at writing.
Maybe you're good at art.
Maybe you're a creative in the kitchen.
Maybe you're a musician.
Maybe you love numbers and accountancy.
Maybe you love working with people or sport.
It doesn't matter what you love.
Creativity will be part of that passion and love within you.
And notice within you those shoots of creativity that want to start to take form.
And give them time and space.
Don't rush them.
Know that you might not fully understand what that shoot of creativity is going to become in your life and in the world and what expression it will hold.
You don't need to know.
All you need to do is bear witness to it and allow it to take form.
And that form is likely to nudge you.
You will feel that wisdom within you nudge you to take action.
You don't exactly need to know what form this creativity will take.
Just know that you are being nudged to take action and trust that nudge.
So today we've been looking at those shoots that are coming up through the soil feeling that excitement of potential and knowing that we don't exactly know what those shoots will be but they will take form.
And isn't that a wonderful reminder that those nudges and shoots of creativity in our lives will take form.
And all we need to do is allow them to grow.
Allow them to blossom and nurture them.
And we don't need to know what they are at the moment.
Just feel them and nurture them and see what emerges.
