Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott and you join me in Exeter at the cemetery where my dad is buried and I'm just at a discreet distance at the moment.
A family of mourners have come up to be with a grave that's just two graves away from dad and it's very freshly dug so I just want to give them a bit of space as they put new flowers and rearrange things and water flowers on the grave before I go down and spend a little bit of time with dad and I don't find a graveyard at all mournful,
It always has me reflect on life,
I find it a really good reminder of the extraordinary nature of life,
Of being alive,
Of the privilege of being alive and it helps me be mindful of what's really important in life and today I'm going to split up today into two different recordings so there's sort of part A and part B,
Two different questions today and tomorrow,
Quite related but for me have been very thought-provoking today and I just thought you might like to hear them too.
So as I stand in the cemetery it's quite high up on a hill overlooking the valley that goes up on the other side of the hill up to Wexford University.
I'm looking over where the river is,
I can't see the river from my vantage point and just admiring the trees that are all now showing either signs of leaf or out fully in green leaf.
So for me the question that I want to share with you and it's a question I've been asking myself today,
Is what is important in your life that you're not paying attention to?
What is important in your life that you are not paying attention to?
That really got me thinking,
What is it in my life that's important but that I'm not paying attention to?
My mind flitted around different things,
Practical things,
I started thinking about my health and my mental well-being and my spiritual practice and the question remains unanswered for me and I think this is really healthy for me personally to have it as a question which is what is it in my life that I am not,
What is important in my life that I am not paying attention to?
And for me what arises as I reflect on this question and like I say this is not at the moment with me coming up with any particular ideas but what it does is it really helps me think about what is important in life and that's really reflected in my setting today in this cemetery in Exeter,
What is important in life?
As people come and tend the graves of those that have passed,
They have a connection and a love for a friend or a family member and they want to celebrate that by coming to the grave and being in relationship with that person in spirit,
In their memories.
And as we here are still alive,
As we are still living our life and feeling and being human in this life,
It's such a poignant reminder of what we spend our attention on.
What do you spend your attention on that drags you away from what is truly important?
Do you know instinctively what is truly important in your life that you are not paying attention to?
So today's question is to celebrate being human,
To celebrate being alive,
To celebrate this life that is an incredible miracle that we've been given this privilege to be alive in this world and it's so easy to get lost and distracted with things that are not important.
So today reflect what is important for you,
Truly important,
Soul nourishingly important and what is it that you need to pay attention to?
