Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me,
Liz Scott,
And I'm feeling incredibly reflective and a little bit sad today.
If you've been following Five Minutes in Nature,
You'll know that we were about to put our beloved old dog to sleep,
And that happened yesterday.
And I've been really in what feels like a washing machine of feelings ever since that happened.
It was about 24 hours ago now,
And I've really felt every single emotion I think you can feel from deep,
Deep sadness and grief to laughter and joy and gratitude and just some extraordinary memories,
Fond memories,
Sad memories,
Reflections,
Oh so much I can't even put it all into words.
And I think one of the things I want to talk about today and the next few days are going to be a little bit reflective around this whole area of missing someone or a pet or an animal or something,
That sense of loss,
Whatever that might be.
So that's going to be the root of it,
But it's going to be in a nourishing,
Healthy way,
And I hope that's what you hear in what I share with you over the next few days.
I think the obvious thing for me today in this Five Minutes in Nature is just my realization of the preciousness of life.
Life is such a precious,
Extraordinarily precious thing.
When I think back to getting that lovely bundle of joy of a puppy 15 years ago and then seeing that old,
Old man of a dog,
Arthritic-y and slow,
Seeing the difference and thinking those 15 years have gone so quickly,
Where did they go?
And just realizing that life is quick and life is precious.
And one of the things I'm being left with today,
And I'm going to reflect on this or ask you this question too,
Is who in my life is really precious to me?
Who in my life is precious to me?
Who in my life do I want to stay connected to,
To be in relationship with,
To spend time with?
And it takes moments like this sometimes to wake up.
Wake up to the fact that often much of my life can be taken up talking and being with people I don't really choose to be with.
They're not the special ones in my life.
And so today I am reflecting on this for myself.
Who is really precious?
Who do I want to spend time with?
And a deep realization occurred for me with my elderly mum who's really fast losing her independence and getting more and more frail.
I want to spend more time with my mum.
I want to spend more time being with her.
I want to spend time with my husband,
Being with him.
I want to spend time with my family,
People that love and care for me and whom I love and care for.
So the question today that I'm going to ask you to reflect on is who in your life is precious to you?
And who in your life are you drawn to spend more time with,
To be with?
Because life is short,
Life is beautiful and being with those people,
As far as I can tell,
Is actually what it's all about.
