The Wisdom Of Letting Go - January 07

Join Liz Scott on Dartmoor for today’s "Five Minutes in Nature" as she reflects beside a bare hawthorn tree under a crisp winter sky. Inspired by the tree’s simplicity and authenticity, Liz explores the power of letting go—just as the tree releases its leaves when the time is right. What might you be holding onto that no longer serves you? This thoughtful meditation invites you to embrace your true essence and stand rooted in your authenticity.

Transcript

Hello and welcome. My name is Liz Scott and I'm inviting you to join me daily for five minutes in January so we can reflect on nature. I'm sitting up on Dartmoor which is a moorland in the southwest of England and I'm sitting beside a hawthorn tree. It's a very cool day. There's a bite to the wind but also at the same time there is the warmth of the sunshine on my face. So I've got both the feeling of coolness and the feeling of warmth and the contrast of both is truly refreshing. And the reflection today as I sit beside this hawthorn tree is to reflect on simplicity and authenticity. And as I look up this hawthorn tree and I follow my eyes up the trunk and I go past the mossy branches and I really stretch my neck back and look up to the canopy of the tree I can see the dark twigs and branches silhouetted starkly silhouetted against the blue deep blue sky. It is like an artist a skilled artist has taken an exquisitely fine brush and has painted the silhouettes of the branches as they dance and twist and bend and has painted this silhouette on the canvas of the sky. And as I look up to this tree and see its nakedness I realize it is giving a wonderful lesson in simplicity and authenticity. It would have just been a few months ago where this tree would have been covered in a glossy green coat of summer leaves and a canopy that would be rustling in the summer sunshine. But at some point the tree let go of the leaves and the leaves fell away and all that was left was the tree in its simple authenticity standing here in the moorland. And the question I want to ask you today is what is it that you are being asked to let go of? The tree with its leaves let go of its leaves when the time was right what is it that you are being asked to let go of? And there's no blame or shame and there's no negativity around maybe something you are carrying or something you are doing or engaging with and in life at the moment. It's not that it's wrong that you do that in the same way that it's not wrong that the tree carried the leaves. It was absolutely right for the time and for you too there might be something you are carrying something you are doing that was right for the time but that time has now passed. What is it that you have been doing or feeling or thinking and what relationships have you been in? What tasks have you been doing? What limiting or old habitual beliefs or thought patterns have been hanging around you and clouding you and crowding you? What is it that you are being asked to let go of? And like the tree that stands in beautiful simplicity with authenticity and pride at showing us its true essence of who it truly is beneath the leaves who are you truly being asked to be? How might you stand in your authenticity rooted in the world and showing people who you truly are and how you express yourself in the world without covering yourself over or hiding yourself or being ashamed? What would that be like? It's time now to be present to who you are and to thank the tree for its wisdom today.