The Consciousness of Nature

Nature is a consciousness of renewal.  The earth feeds itself, a process of recycling its own energy.  

When we understand how she does this, when we come closer to her, feel into her changes, and observe her forests, rivers, and meadows, then we can begin to see her real depth, her kindness, her soul. 

I can imagine in my meditations as I sit quietly under a tree, the roots forging their way between stones through the soil.  I can see a root branch out to more roots, until the microisal is reached.  Beyond these fungal tethers, I see an iridescent sphere of pulsating light, extending to all organisms in the soil.  This light is conscious, the heartbeat of the forest, intelligent, and the source of life itself.  It nurtures life, leading the cycle of renewal, drawing in the energy of the air into the soil, the water, and the nutrients, even the stones, to maintain the cycle of birth, life and death.  Its power is the momentum of nature…Mother Nature. 

Nature teaches us many things.  She is a beautiful reminder to take things slowly, to appreciate that processes are sometimes a necessary waiting game, and to enjoy the evolution, without expectations for a final result.  With nature, there is no fulfilled expectation or end-goal.  Forests are ever-changing, and we are never observing the beginning or the end, or the same forest twice.  We can only see the work in progress.  Yet, when we take the time to engage with the natural flora and fauna around us, we realize that this work-in-progress is all we need.  It’s the form between forms.  And before we think we need something more, we already have it.

A lady of the forest once said, when humans are allowed space to be, we are capable of being very kind.  Nature is space of a special sort.  It doesn’t require anything of us, other than our presence.  I used to be in an office, every day, 10 sometimes 12 hours at a time.  I often looked out of my window and imagined a world where I could create my abundance outside, in the sun, in the snow or in the rain.    Even as I dreamed such a dream, walking amongst the trees, I struggled against the obligatory schedules, meetings, business trips, and missed phone calls.  I envied the trees their quiet sovereignty, their slow and quiet progress, building and nurturing their communities in solidarity and conscious affection to their neighbors.  How can I emulate this gentle yet decisive renewal in my own life?  What contribution to her well-being, and by extension, my own, can I deliver?

It is well known that the natural climate processes are under threat. Humans have hampered, destroyed, or escalated the processes of renewal such that ecosystems struggle to survive.  Our interference often inhibits the natural flow of Earth’s forests, land, and waters when we don’t seek to appreciate her processes, or to assume we know better and enforce ideas that break the system.  I know that taking action on any level is meaningful.  By being open to listening, observing, and learning from her, we gain more than thriving animals, plants and air.  We become enriched with an abundance that is far more satisfying than gold.  The cycle of renewal reaches us psychologically, emotionally and spiritually, and it can begin by simple walks among the trees.  We feed into the earth our own energy, our own sense of renewal. We can renew the natural flows of the Earth consciousness.  And be the recipients of a new Earth.