Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me,
Liz Scott,
Up at a place called Cuckoo Ball here on Dartmoor.
Cuckoo Ball is an old burial cairn.
It would have been constructed I think maybe between three and five thousand years ago.
Yes,
Three to five thousand years ago.
And all that's left of it are a couple of hefty granite stones which obviously couldn't be moved because they were so big.
Most likely.
The burial cairn that was here has been dismantled over the years and used to build walls and houses.
So there's not much left of it,
But it's a beautiful place to come and to kind of be curious about our ancestors and what had them build something here and what made it special.
And what did they want to place this in the landscape for?
It would have taken dozens of people a lot of time,
Hundreds of people possibly,
To create this burial cairn.
So why?
And I love these questions that never get answered.
And today is a reflection about looking within.
Particularly today,
I've been settled,
Very settled.
I woke up this morning and I went to the gym.
I'm taking a neighbor's dog out for a walk now,
So this is my happy place,
Being outside with a dog.
When I sat having breakfast,
We bought fresh croissants.
We had coffee.
I was looking at these beautiful white arum lilies that were growing in the garden and I felt this wave of gratitude,
What a blessing my life is.
It's not always like that.
All those circumstances can be exactly the same,
But sometimes it feels like I've got a hard life or things are difficult.
But this morning I felt very blessed.
And in that space of reflective calm,
It occurred to me to reach out to a couple of people and this is actually what today is all about.
My request to you is that you reflect gently as I speak now on whether there is someone in your life that maybe you've lost contact with,
Or maybe is going through a bit of a tricky time,
Or maybe is just going to pop into your mind as I speak.
But if there's someone in your life that you think might value a message from you,
Just an I'm thinking of you kind of message,
Then my request is that if it's feels right for you to send that message by the end of this conversation with you today that you send it.
So I went to the gym earlier today and I realized that there was someone at the gym who's pretty regular,
And yet I hadn't seen her for,
This was now the third week.
And in this space of reflection and calm energy,
It just occurred to me to send her a little message to say,
Missing you and hope you're okay.
As I was walking up the hill with this beautiful black Labrador that I'm walking for a neighbour.
I remembered that my friend in London is going through chemotherapy today.
One of her treatment days is today.
So I just sent her a photograph and sent her a little message saying,
Thinking of you.
So can you see that these little messages can be really powerful?
Spontaneous,
They can be very small,
But there's a kind of a sense of just sending them out in the world.
There was somebody else I noticed who was on one of my women's groups the other day,
And there was something she didn't find she had language for,
She's sort of struggling to understand for herself.
And it occurred to me,
Oh,
I'll just send her a little message and check she's okay,
That she's still not in a stuck place about it.
So can you see coming from from a gentle,
Settled place.
It's like something occurs and I send a message.
And that's what I'm reflecting on today and would love you to reflect on for yourself.
And there's a real difference between sending a message out to someone because you think you should do it,
And there's a little bit of a pushy,
Maybe urgent feeling behind it.
Like,
I should speak to so-and-so.
I should let them know I'm thinking of them.
I should,
I should.
And that's not what this is about.
If nobody comes to mind from a reflective,
Gentle space,
Don't send any messages.
I'm not asking you to go out and send a message.
If,
However,
Something occurs to you and you think,
Do you know what,
I haven't spoken to this person for a while,
Or I haven't seen them for a while,
Or I'm just going to say I'm thinking of them.
If it comes up in a gentle way.
Then my request is that you act on it.
Just let me know how it goes.
What I want you to get a sense of is what it's like to listen into the flow of your intuition,
Your inner compass,
And then from a grounded,
Loving place,
To take action from it.
That's all this is about.
So let me know how you get on with that.
If you do send any messages,
I'd love to know.
And don't forget to join me again tomorrow for another five minutes in nature.
