Dear friends,
Welcome to this morning meditation,
Which I hope will encourage you today or someday very soon to get yourself out of the built-up environment and find a space for reflection in nature.
Of course,
We don't have to escape to nature in order to become present.
We can become present here and now.
Even so,
It can be a great help and a restorative practice to find ourselves in green and open spaces.
Right now,
I hope you're sitting comfortably in your chair or relaxing on your cushion.
So,
I invite you to close your eyes.
Notice and be grateful for your presence in this space.
Leave any concerns or tasks to one side just for these few minutes.
Notice your breathing.
You're breathing in and you're breathing out.
And see if you can notice any sounds around you as you sit quietly.
Maybe there are sounds right beside you in your room.
Notice these and then see if you can notice any sounds that might be coming in from outside.
Just pay attention to all the sounds without putting a name on them.
Let's give ourselves one minute.
Sit back and enjoy the art of listening.
Welcome back.
We are told that approximately 80% of the population in developed countries live in urban areas.
Efforts to provide green spaces in urban areas are growing and this is to be welcomed.
Integrating nature into urban environments helps to make them more natural and more livable.
Greening a city helps create a healthier and a more sustainable place in which to live.
Parks and tree-lined streets allow us to see beyond what might otherwise be a rather soulless accumulation of buildings.
These urban green spaces provide respite for people living and working in cities.
Still,
We need to escape from controlled areas and get ourselves into places where nature rules freely.
It's important that we find time to escape to forests,
To national park areas,
Removed from the hustle and the bustle of everyday life.
Spending time in nature has a calming effect on us.
Who among us will not benefit from the soothing natural sounds,
The fresh air,
The green spaces?
These must provide many physical,
Mental and emotional benefits that can contribute to our well-being.
I'm sure many of us have found opportunities for relaxation and felt a reduced sense of anxiety by simply walking in a forest and paying attention to the ever-changing natural world that we find there.
Here,
The world moves at a more relaxed pace,
A pace more in keeping with the good life.
We see nature moving at its own speed,
As season follows season in regular and unbroken succession.
Winifred Emma May,
Who for many years wrote under the pen name Patience Strong,
Has given us a poem which I believe demonstrates the benefits of finding stillness in nature.
This is what Patience Strong says on the subject of forests.
If you stand very still in the heart of a wood,
You will hear many wonderful things,
The snap of a twig and the wind in the trees and the whir of invisible wings.
If you stand very still in the turmoil of life and you wait for the voice from within,
You'll be led down the quiet ways of wisdom and peace in a mad world of chaos and din.
If you stand If you stand very still and you hold to your faith,
You will get all the help that you ask.
You will draw from the silence the things you need,
Hope and courage and strength for your task.
Words there from Winifred Emma May,
Otherwise Patience Strong.
Let's have another pause for reflection now.
Welcome back.
So today,
Or as soon as you have an opportunity,
The recommendation is for you to get away from the city.
Leave behind the hustle and the bustle of everyday traffic.
Find yourself in a place where nature is in charge and stay there even for a little while.
This might be a forest,
It might be a managed natural area,
It might be a place where you can admire the mountains or relax by the sight and sounds of the sea.
The important thing is that nature is allowed to operate freely in this place.
Here you can see and notice the different types of trees,
Even though from a distance they may all appear much the same.
As you listen to Birdsong you will notice different performers singing in this choir.
If you sit very still,
You might find that one of these vocalists,
Especially a brave little robin,
Will come over to look directly at you.
Who could remain stressed and who could avoid relaxation in this natural habitat?
You might find a stream nearby.
Allow the peaceful sounds of the stream to offer you a lesson from water.
Water moves only in one direction.
It finds its way through the narrowest of spaces.
It works its way over obstacles.
It brings things along with it.
And when you come to think of it,
We can do the same.
Moving forward,
No looking back,
Altering our course to suit the circumstances.
I'd like to bring this meditation to an end by reading for you a poem,
The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry.
When despair for the world grows in me,
And I wake in the night at the least sound,
In fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty,
On the water,
And the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things,
Who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.
I come into the presence of still water,
And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light.
For a time I rest in the grace of the world,
And am free.
May you find time,
Make time,
To rest in the grace of the world.
Namaste.
