Yesterday I went for a drizzly walk in the Botanical Gardens. What a piece of Paradise. It made me think about man’s relationship to Nature. How we like her wild, and controlled, controlled wild, but mostly controlled. And a certain “giving of direction” serves her well, or at least does not hurt. But mostly we simply rape her blind. Yet in a garden like that, we keep plants from all over the world for our own viewing pleasure (with some educational benefits). It does seem to me like an altar to Nature, a place to show our complete reverence. (Is there anything like it in a zoo? Or is that “simply” a collection of caged animals, purely there for our entertainment? (Again, barring the one or two cases where near extinct creatures are given a habitat to perhaps multiply abundantly enough to be re-released into the wild.)
As I was walking along all by myself – there was almost nobody about, for people here call days like yesterday “miserable” – they don’t like all the inconvenience of the heavenly waters… – I suddenly found myself right back in last year’s pilgrimage. Just me and nature, rain, birdsong, total and utter peace and harmony. I could hear it all talk to me, or rather NOT talk, but embrace me. I could feel how deeply, deeply connected I am with this earth and everything in and on it. I depend on it, even for the guidance of where to place my foot. You can walk on rocky or rooty terrain, and need never look down, and you will not slip or trip. She will guide you if you let her. Oh, it lasted only moments yesterday, but I had plenty of it last year, and will soon again when I go hiking in June.
And then the real “hammer” came, also something I experienced lots of on my walk last year. From within this space “suddenly” I came people. Even just seeing them from a distance. It was enough. (Last year it was always these shifts I had to make inside when approaching and entering into cities or human dwelling places.) I was struck by the sense of totally disarrayed energy that they presented compared to the natural flow of nature on her own. I could describe this better with pictures. I think animals do not need to see people, or smell them, they can sense them. A disruption in the energy field around them. Wow, I perceived that so strongly.
And suddenly I understood another factor of what has been so troublesome with this transition back to Europe for me. Entering this different energy field. Back in SA I was almost only surrounded by like energy, from just a certain to a very strong level of like-mindedness. Here I am not anymore. I perceive myself as an alien here. And I allow the world around me to constantly affect my own energy field, and throw me off kilter. All the freakin’ time. It’s distressing to say the least. Every conversation I have I enter someone’s world, abandoning, for moments, my own… And what happens to the house when the master is away? (Or, in other words: When the cat is gone, the mice come out to play.)
I must become much more aware of this. Much more “vigilant and alert” (French accent, which movie? :-) ) and become the “ever alert watcher of your inner space” (Eckhart Tolle)
Have a blessed and mindful day!
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