The Beautiful Dance Of Life And Death - April 16

Spring is nature's most tender paradox — new life rising from what has fallen away. In this 5 Minutes In Nature, Liz sits with the quiet wisdom of the season, exploring how growth and loss are forever intertwined. As she watches the world reawaken, she's reminded that those we've loved and lost never truly leave us — they live on in the warmth of the memories we carry.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott and you join me at the end of a day of walking. I'm sitting on a bench in a place called South Brent which is not far from where I live. It's right on the edge of a train track and a road so you might hear the occasional car or train go by and I've been walking with my friend and my sister. We're on a track that goes around the South Hams. It's called the South Hams Trail and the South Hams is the area in Devon where I live and this morning we walked from Buckfastley. That's where we ended up yesterday and we've headed up high high high up onto the moorland and then back down along the river Avon into South Brent itself and this is where I'm ending up today. And as I was walking with my friend and my sister we had some philosophical discussions just reflecting on the day reflecting on what we got from the day and one of the things my friend said really resonated with me and that's what I want to share with you today and she was talking about how death brings about life and looking at the circle and cycle of life and death and we weren't looking at this in a morbid way at all. It just so happened that one of our footpaths took us on a trail through a wood and the woodland has had a lot of storm damage and a lot of the woodlands around here have had storm damage recently because we have had some high winds and there were two or three trees that had come down that had fallen and actually as they had fallen they had taken part of the path away with them their root system had sort of ripped up the path so the path rather than being flat had a massive big dent in it that we had to walk down and then walk back up again and of course it's rather sad to see these big trees fallen but my friend as we were talking reflecting on the day said yes but there is something about death bringing space for life and if you look at those trees you realize a couple of things one is that the shade that they had given the forest and the woodland now would encourage sunlight and that sunlight would encourage new growth growth that wouldn't be able to grow underneath the shade and canopy of a tree and you also realize that the tree as it's fallen as it decays it becomes a home for insects and beetles and spiders and all of these things are wonderful food source for the birds and the animals so where there is death there is life it's almost like it's making space for something else and this reflection on death and on those that have passed on loved ones that have passed away was really heightened whilst we were walking up over the moorland for my sister this was a walk that she remembered doing with my late dad and mum when her boys were younger and she just felt very touched and moved as she was walking across a landscape that felt familiar and for her it felt like dad was close that she felt his presence and as she said i know that he's died but it's like he still lives on in my mind my memories hold these wonderful warm loving feeling and a sense of dad and and he's still there in my mind and i loved that and so today is the reflection on that cycle of life and it's really apt as we walk through spring and we see everything emerging with freshness and green leaves and new growth and blooms and blossoms coming through because they are only possible because the leaves died and fell last year and the bracken fell back to the moorland to create space for new growth to come through life is only possible because of death and it's really helpful just to realize this that life and death go hand in hand and where there is death there is life and where there is life there is death but i'm talking about this from a perspective of creativity and freedom and growth and newness there feels like there is huge hope as i walk on this walk and particularly as i walk through spring so today is just a reflection on that life and death walking hand in hand and i'd be ever so curious to know what that means for you don't forget to join me for another five minutes in nature tomorrow i look forward to taking you on the next stage of my walk then

Reviews

Thanks for this so this soothing reminder Liz. 🙏🏻😇💙

Where there is death there is life. I too see this in the forest. We have many large pine trees and my time in the forest you can tell when one of the old mother trees are in their last stages of life for there are many new seedlings and young trees surrounding her.

She knows she must drop many pine cones and send nourishment to the young seedlings so they will survive her. It is like her last sacrifice to give new life.

Thanks Liz enjoy the walk. ✌️❤️😎