The world can surprise us when we give it room.
Our connection with the natural world isn't just a connection. It's what we are. We are expressions of nature just as a thunderstorm is. Our culture may ask us to think of ourselves as separate from nature, yet that's not reality. Reality is that we humans are sensitive creatures in a world that never sits still.
When the world gets scary, it can be useful to remember that we are supported in ways we might otherwise have ignored. This may be a good time to reconnect. To get outside. Take a breath. Notice the world.
I created the Talking With Nature course 20 or so years ago to give us a chance to connect in a meaningful way. Then about 6 years ago I put the material up on my blog for free for anyone to enjoy. It starts here: https://janetdane.blogspot.com/2016/08/talking-with-nature-course-in-mysticism.html
In Day 10 of the course I told my Little Brown Bird Story.
When I was on a retreat a while back, I needed to get down from a long walk I had taken up a ridge in the forest to the meditation hall for the next sitting. I had 10 minutes and didn't know if I could make it so I relaxed and decided just to go and hope for the best. As I started down the steep hill, a small bird lit on a branch on my left. A little brown bird. I said hello to it, delighted to have the company. As I went down, it flew from branch to branch, landing always on a branch just ahead of me and to my left - that was until I got to a spot where I thought I needed to veer right in order to get the shortest way to the bottom. The little brown bird hopped to a branch a short distance away in another direction. Should I follow the bird, or head the way I thought I should? I followed the bird. And in the end, it led me the shortest way possible to the hall.
Was this a coincidence? Maybe. But the end result was my arrival at the hall on time against all odds. Even better, was the feeling that life was supporting me, rather than working against me. I was fighting the tyranny of time, and the organic process of nature supported me. The world can surprise us when we give it room.
This may be a good time to reconnect. To get outside. Take a breath. Notice the world. We are part of this.
