days 9 & 10 – ode to nature

There are few things in life that make me happier than getting up early, before everyone else, in the quiet of morning, when my thoughts haven’t yet caught up with me, when everything is hushed and dawn is yawning and the sun has just begun its slow rise over the horizon, ever hopeful.

And then, if I’ve woken early enough and returned quickly enough for my husband to still be asleep, to slip under the duvet and nuzzle the cold tip of my nose against his warm neck and have a few more minutes of idleness before joining the rest of the world in waking. And if, by then, it has begun to rain then all the better. Because the lulling sound of rain on your window pane is another of life’s little pleasures.

So much of our daily life is spent inside (literally and figuratively), with the tenuous preoccupations that distance us from ourselves.  Nature is where I escape the chatter. Everything slows down to its beat, its rhythm, its cycles.

Andrew explained it in a way that I never could:

“Cycles are a part of life. Daily cycles, seasonal cycles, and cycles of birth and death. Nature has an inherent understanding of these things and it offers no resistance to them. Flowers seem happy to whither away, as if they know they will nourish the soil and allow a newer one to rise up in their place.

The lesson to learn here is that nothing lasts. All things pass away. Whatever you are experiencing now is merely the precursor to what you will be experiencing next. The cold winter nights always turn into the warm spring sun… and back again. Nature allows the cycles to happen and never fights them. In fact, it understands that the cycles are what allows life to flourish. If the tides only came inward, we would all drown.

Nature teaches us that for everything there is a season and the right timing. Sometimes in our life we want certain things to happen right now. It is hard to wait for the fruits of our actions and we expect results immediately. This is especially ingrained in us now with the fast results of the Internet, where you can look up questions and get instant answers. But the really good things in life – self-discovery, meditation, contemplation, self-transcendence – are not like instant coffee. They take time, practice and effort.”

Is there anything left to say, really? Except this: enjoy every second of your Sunday night. Take it easy, take it in. Because Monday will come whether you like it or not and Sundays are for rest and roasts and blankets and books and all those things that bring you happiness.

xo