Sanctuary

Blue Ridge Mountain Sunset, Photography by Gaye Abbott

“And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.”

~Kahlil Gibran

A light snow fell a few mornings ago here in Western N. Carolina and I am certain heavier in the Blue Ridge Mountains I gaze at every day. No prediction of this snow at all. In fact as it was falling I looked at the weather forecast which shows each hour and no snow was predicted. I say Mother Nature – 1; Weather Forecasters – 0

I imagine it is more challenging to forecast weather these days as it is so, in some cases drastically, different. Especially when there are micro-climates only a few miles apart. A friend 4 miles down the road had no snow. I remember while living in Vermont walking bare foot in the snow. What an amazing, tingling life affirming experience that was. Earth and water element combined to provide a wake up call for my soles.

However right now there is nothing blocking Spring’s rumblings underneath the ground with some early daffodils already up and a multitude of buds on the trees and plants. The birdsong has increased to the point where it is challenging to identify how many species are starting their mating rituals already.

Some warm days preceded this unexpected snowfall so I have to admit I have Spring Fever a bit. Dreaming of what I will plant on my screened in porch and what veggies, flowers and herbs I will choose this year. Nature girl I have always been for as long as I can remember.

There is healing, magic and mystery in the natural world. So much so that I won’t ever understand why so many ignore, or even worse destroy, it for short sighted profit. Without a healthy eco-system humans will vanish from this earth and we will lose the sanctuary that sustains us and the ecological diversity that not only enchants but is crucial to every single life form.

800-year-old oak

This is why I want to speak about simplicity, sanctuary and stewardship of the earth. Henry David Thoreau said in Walden:

“Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.”

Henry David Thoreau

There are millions of people that live in stewardship with the earth, regarding it as a sanctuary. That number is increasing. I would imagine that most who read this blog are among those. Every act we do whether planting gardens, growing our own food, helping to save species, conserving and protecting resources, living mindfully with less consumption and greed.

The possibilities and opportunities are unlimited to regenerate and live simply with the many challenges we face serving as catalysts for change. As humans heal, shift priorities, and raise connective and collective consciousness we are granted a window into the eternal and ever evolving beauty of what is always becoming.

Learning to savor life’s moments, instead of living in the past or worrying about the details in the future, is regenerative. After all we are never clear on how many moments we have left, especially if we are fortunate enough to be an elder.

I wonder if you have spent any time walking barefoot on the earth without any shoes as a barrier. Noticing how your body feels in those grounding sensual moments. Place your spine on the trunk of a tree and breathe in the flow of energy relaxing the entire nervous system. Dive into the scent of a flower by sticking your nose down into its’ depths and sensually connecting with why birds and bees do it. 🙂

Ride the crest of a wave with your body merging with the power of water rolling to shore never knowing when you may be taken underwater. Taken down into a whirlpool of wildly churning water, directly into heart stopping fears of imminent death. Until those same seemingly treacherous waters propel you up to the oxygen you are hungering for grounding your feet on the sandy bottom of the shoreline.

Walk along a trail pausing at the top of a mountain. In awe of what is spread out before you. Becoming still and silent so as to listen with full attention to the natural world spread out around you. Feeling the expansive almost mystical stillness wrap around you while attending to the wind playing with your hair.

Craggy Gardens, Blue Ridge Mountains of Western N. Carolina, Photo by Gaye Abbott

Wait until darkness descends on a clear night. Draping your body on the earth and gazing at the stars and planets in their own unique orbit unable to grasp the magnitude of the immensity of multiple galaxies and our place in the complexity.

These are moments to savor. They nourish and sustain us so that we may be in service to the regeneration of a breathing earth filled with mystery and magic – and all life that lives upon it.

Without them we are only half living…..

“For those who have experienced the joy of being alone with nature there is really little need for me to say much more; for those who have not, no words of mine can even describe the powerful, almost mystical knowledge of beauty and eternity that come, suddenly, and all unexpected.”

~Jane Goodall

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Gaye Abbott, Wildly Free Elder, 02/23/24