"Nature is made to conspire with spirit to emancipate us."
When I read this line in Ralph Waldo Emerson's book "Nature" earlier today, I couldn't help but smile with a deep sense of knowing. I love Emerson. He speaks so eloquently of our love of and connection to nature. I feel like he speaks the words of my own heart. I have considered the past couple years to be the journey of my emancipation…a journey of facing fears, becoming aware of unhealthy patterns in my life so I can make healthier choices, releasing self-judgment and self-imposed limitations, and dissolving what ACIM refers to as the blocks in my awareness to the experience of Love. My time spent in nature has played an extraordinary role in assisting me on this healing journey.
In the woods, I feel a sense of innocence emerge. In the woods, I experience the excitement of exploration and the awe of discovery. In the woods, I am continually filled with curiosity and wonder. In the woods, I dance to the song of the pine tree forest blanketed in the aromatic glow of fallen needles. In the woods, I soar in harmony with the birds and frolic playfully with the squirrels. In the woods, I flow gracefully through life like water over the rocks in a stream. In the woods, I align with my own inner guidance, wisdom, understanding and peace. In the woods, I find my grace.
When I'm alone in the woods is actually when I feel the least alone. For me, it's where duality comes together; where the physical and spiritual worlds find their harmony. Where I can, in one moment as I look up to the trees towering above me and into the vast expanse of infinite sky, feel so insignificant. And yet, in the next moment as I inhale the scent of pine needles and earth, feel the sun on my face and the gentle breeze in my hair, experience the grandeur of being a part of it all. It is harmonic resonance...all matter vibrating at its own frequency, joining in a beautiful symphony. It is as if I no longer exist as separate...like I can, all at once, be nothing and everything. It is in this moment I am set free.
