Hello and welcome to five minutes in nature with me Liz Scott out and about in Exeter.
I'm helping look after my mum and it means that I come up here for a night,
I'm a bit out of breath,
And spend a bit of time just helping with my mum and we together as four siblings we help look after mum so she can stay in her own house and I'm a bit out of breath because it's the evening and I've just gone out to get some fresh air and walked up a very steep hill and I'm now slowly ambling back in the quiet area of Exeter and you might be able to hear some of the birds in the background behind me,
Quite a lot of trees,
It's quite peaceful here but I am on a road so there might be the occasional car that goes by and today's reflection is prompted by something I heard,
I heard somebody talk and the theme of today is all about service,
Service for others,
Serving others and it came about after listening to an interview I was listening to something about people who had experienced near-death experiences people that had had an experience where their body had physically died temporarily and they had then gone on to have an out-of-body experience that is inexplicable when it comes to trying to explain it through science and all of the people that I heard were talking about a peaceful experience,
A loving experience,
A sense of consciousness,
Of awareness,
Of love,
Of the essence of love pervading everything and I found it really comforting listening to this as this particular person was talking and one of the things that he realized for himself was that coming back to this world there is a spectrum of service and that one end of the spectrum it's about serving yourself and at the other end of the spectrum it's about serving others and for him he realized the importance of serving others and as he spoke I felt this big yes explode within me it's like yes serving others that feels so important for me too and my dear old dad he passed away 18 months ago and he was somebody that made service central to his life he really saw the hand of others helping him as he grew up and he really felt that it was his job to serve others to support others to help others in his role as best as he could and he did that so when this man talked about serving others as something he'd really seen for himself not only did I feel a big yes explode inside me yes I feel that too I also felt deeply connected to my dad who had taught me that not through teaching me or sitting me down and talking at me but just showing me that was how he lived his life serving others and what I realized is the joy I feel in giving in sharing in supporting others and I realize how constricted I feel and how rushed and narrow my life is when I fall into the trap of just serving myself of going out for what's right for me so for me it makes no sense to serve myself because I feel small and uncomfortable as opposed to serving others being present and feeling a sense of expansiveness and love so serving others for me has opened up a really rich world and it landed for me deeply being up here looking after mum so reflecting on my dear old dad where service of to others was so important and hearing this interview today of this this chap who'd had a near-death experience and you'd come back really deeply understanding the importance of serving others and I'd love to know your reflections on that today what's what does it mean for you to serve to be of service to others let me know your thoughts and don't forget to join me again tomorrow for another five minutes in nature
