The Truth In Nature

An Ode to Mother Earth

Algarve Cliffs

Every morning I awaken, I know my first hour will be spent in nature. It's non-negotiable. I have learned enough about myself to know that walking the cliffs or beaches near my home grounds me in a way that nothing else can.

My hashtags - #nothingisordinary and #startyourdaywithbeauty – are more than that. They are my philosophy. When walking with Sophie, the expansive ocean views are enough to free my mind from the constraints of any worries or mental inhibitions. Creativity takes the driver's seat, and ideas, visions, and plans flow effortlessly. If I wake up worried about something, I often decide on a solution to whatever concerns me before I finish my walk.

Nature is what it is and nothing more or less. It is genuine in a world where so much is artificial and contrived. Nature reflects our essence buried under society's messages about who and what we should be and do.

Nature heals us through her acceptance of all we are, our strengths and limitations, our virtues and flaws. The ocean does not judge us as we stand on the beach. The birds do not berate; instead, they remind us of our forgotten soul songs. The energy from the ground under our feet assures us that we are loved by something sublime and powerful.

We are rooted in all that surrounds us. We are of the same stuff as the earth, water, stars, and all other living beings. Yet we have our individual frequency and vibration that too often is dissonant in today's chaotic and often destructive environment. Artists, in particular, feel this dissonance and become outliers from conventional lives.

"Some of us don’t want to be tough alpha leaders. Some of us just want to write and wander the garden and breathe in the sky and nourish and nurture and quietly create new pathways and live our lives as our art. To know the earth as poetry."

~ Victoria Erickson 

Nature invites a renewed harmony and resonance between her and our hearts, between who we are and how we live. There is a reconnection to something more profound than the mind that is felt as love, sensed as calm, and experienced as spiritual.

The whale never asks itself what its purpose is. The dolphin never competes, trying to outdo other marine life. The seagulls call out to one another without wondering if their voices are too loud. Each knows its place in nature. We humans are the only ones that don't. We don't recognize our interdependence and interconnection to all that is life. We see nature as a resource to be used up instead of a life-giving being that needs conscious stewarding.

We have lost our sense of awe and wonder that we knew as children when the world held miracles in every blade of grass and lullabies in every bird song.

I walk the cliffs so I never forget that I am humbly a part of this beautiful and wonderous natural world. In return, she fills my heart with gratitude and my mind with creativity. One day, I will die to be reborn as the ash that feeds other forms of life. The cycle continues, and we are all part of it.