Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott and it continues to be a bit grey and blustery and blowy up here on Dartmoor.
I've just come out for another walk and today I'm sheltering in a thicket of gorse bushes.
These are like thorny bushes and I've come right to the centre because the southwesterly wind is still very blustery today.
It feels as though we are moving out of summer.
This feels autumnal,
Grey clouds,
There's dampness in the air,
There's rain threatening and I feel kind of excited to know that autumn is on its way.
And today is a reflection on small things,
On small actions of kindness.
I've actually been reflecting on the pilgrimage that I walked.
Seven weeks of walking earlier in the year during March and April and I walked following the energy current of the Mary and Michael line from Cornwall to Norfolk and I've actually been spending some time recently going back over my notes and listening back to some of the recordings I made on Insight Timer at the time,
Reminding myself of that pilgrimage,
Reminding myself of some of the things I learnt along the way.
And one of the things I remembered or recalled as I was reflecting back was a day when I felt really overwhelmed with all that was going on in the world.
There was the news about wars and upsets and people dying and the environment and climate change.
All of these stories were swirling as I walked my pilgrimage and there was one day in particular where I sat down for lunch,
Opened my sandwiches,
Had a cup of tea from a thermos flask.
I just burst into tears,
I felt overwhelmed with the sadness of the world.
I kind of felt that it was on me to do something and I just didn't know what to do.
I felt helpless as though what could I do?
There was nothing I could do.
And for sure even now as I reflect on some of the things I read or engage with about current affairs and world news,
I have that sense of fear and helplessness.
What can I do?
Everything feels too big.
I can't have an impact.
So it was really helpful to listen back to that time where I had those feelings of sadness.
They sort of swept over me and I had this real clear voice.
It felt like a voice come through and I asked the question,
What am I supposed to do?
How can I make a difference?
And the voice that came through in answer to this question,
It was an internal voice.
It just said,
Keep walking,
Just walk.
That's what it said,
Just walk.
And I felt incredible comfort in realizing that I was in the middle of a walking pilgrimage and all I needed to do was walk.
That was my job in the moment.
It was to walk.
And sometimes I feel we can be a little bit like rabbits caught in the headlights.
We're so shocked and stunned by something that feels overwhelming.
We just don't know what to do.
We stop still and feel incapacitated.
And actually that's not true.
We are all parts of the ecosystem of life,
The ecosystems of human,
The network of human beings.
And we all play a part.
It's like this wonderful intricate dance and we are all playing a part in the dance.
We're not playing the same part.
We might not be the lead dancer but we are playing a part.
And so rather than think about what I can't do and how big everything is and how I can't do anything to make an impact,
I'm reminded of that voice,
The voice that said just walk when I was on my pilgrimage.
And in a sense I'm feeling something similar today.
It's just take the next step.
Engage with small acts of kindness.
Smile at your neighbor.
Say good morning.
Stop to have a conversation with someone.
Offer to take a dog for a walk in the village.
Help somebody out with something that feels tricky for them.
What I'm really hearing clearly today is just do something small.
It doesn't need to be big.
And that's how you and I can make a difference in the world.
