Category: freedom in nature

Forest bathing

.Reading time 2 minutes.

spring forest

There’s a place in North Wales where forest is like no other. Gentle yet imposing, soothing yet dark. It never fails to stir the soul within me. Air so fresh it speaks of the deepest, most nourishing sturdiness and wisdom. It compares only to the most delightful embrace where I bury myself utterly in bliss. Forest bathing is by far my favourite spiritual experience where my body comes alive in completely in tune with my soul and I feel complete, at home.

One such experience earlier this spring reaffirmed my love for the forest yet again and spoke to me loudly of a place of belonging. As I walked deeper into pine kingdom covered in emerald moss I felt myself coming alive in every cell in me. Both my skin and soul screamed for exposure, immersion into what I can only describe as the light of spirit, ancient and completely perfect

Its welcoming voice whooshed through tree tops roaring me into its body and I became as one with it. Stripping layer after layer till bearing all I gently rested on its moist floor never wanting to be anywhere else ever again. Complete bliss enveloped my senses and pure peace entered my soul. I wanted to stay in that glorious house for eternity. Such feeling is rarely replicated in life. Like a mother the earth licked my exposed feet with soft caresses and I felt myself melting into the ground. It took a while to awake myself into the world again and sorrow of separation entered me as I left the forest.

forest bathing

 

The land of me

.Reading time 1 minute.

The land that steals my soul over and over and feels like the gentlest fall into paradise

Its earthly being shapes my everything

Soft whisper of its spirit holds me whole till I melt into its form as perfect as the most sacred

It takes me places I can only dream of and even in dreams it is otherworldly leaving no words to describe its beauty

Beauty. What is it? In the land you know the true meaning of what true beauty is, living and breathing, pulsating through rocks and valleys like an eternal traveller never arriving

As your heart beats I exhale. As you blow wind over the mountains it catches in my hair

Intoxicatingly sweet with daggers all over my heart made of pure gold

With fingers in moss like your flesh soothing and cold

I miss you always. That distant echo in my heart that never stops calling in day and night

The line that never breaks, but trembles with tears, laughs and screams that only makes it stronger and that’s how I live it

Breath by breath, step by step, heart to heart hopelessly in sweet surrender

Photo: Land of the lost by Daniel Laan (found on Instagram). Thank you very much! 

In a storm

.Reading time 1 minute.

The storm rages like I rage

Eternal conflict between love and freedom

The land encapsulates both

And whenever I see destruction of nature both freedom and love die within me and

I rage like the wildest sea that despite all life’s chains can not be locked away or tamed

That is the essence of my being

I rage like the blazing sun of mid summer when rain is in hiding and the burning is in the heart that can’t be pacified

My Firy love lies in remote corners of the land where the wild heart of its core merges with mine

Whoever steps in it must be beaten with the power of wilderness, must be tested to a point of no limits

My heart bleeds for the land where wolves roam no longer yet their spirits are alive with roar against the tiny hand of humanity

Destroying land is destroying freedom like a dagger through its own mother’s heart whose love prevails no matter what

The wind, water, fire and cracking earth core are voices, fierce in their screams

Freedom and love – only in land I find they don’t conflict within me

Only here I am simultaneously consumed and released

It is the place where death lies next to me gently

Can Nature…?

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Can nature heal

Can earth bring us back to our knees and pierce its ancient dagger through the heart

Can nature teach you who you are

Can a bird song inspire, delight and speak of both sorrow and joy

Can river wash away the debris of the worldly matter

Can mountain hold you in such a way you never wobble again

Can spring flowers inject a hope into our being

Can roaming animal body remind us of the raw wilderness within

Can the falling snow cover us in sheer enchantment

Can rain drops on the skin put us in touch with our bodies

Can a flight of an eagle inspire strength and power waiting to take flight inside of us

Can God bow before its majesty and weep tears of love

What is it that nature does and doesn’t that makes our lives worth living and speaks of meaning old as centuries

Of nature we are born and to its body we return

As outside so is within

What can be more life, meaning, strength and delight all at the same time

Nature is magic and matter, spirit and body

Bones and blood, skin and intelligence

All embracing…

One place we become whole, we come home, we know what we are

January – all about death

.Reading time less than 1 minute.
  • This month has been all about death.
  • I just read this powerful essay and I cried and cried. Reality is real and it is here and it will either jolt you into action or into being or will paralyse you. Part of the signature for 2019 is working out what your reality is in the context of the collective reality and here we are already jumping head on into this year’s challenges. Going to be quite a ride. We will be thrown into awakening with quite a force

    • https://scarletimprint.com/essays/rewilding-witchcraft?fbclid=IwAR3nXgQnuhzSRGgn7YJ7eOXd1rNunodb48yNUXO2Ck8uBDXDMHK8_7xEM9o

    The one constant

    .Reading time 1 minute.

    My solace, my heart

    A breath of new energy needed

    I find my peace and sacred space

    In you and only you

    My one constant, unchangable vessel that carries all that is good and desired

    It calms when internal seas rise wild

    It teaches when mind is lost

    It embraces when sorrow wraps round my heart

    It cleans when tears are plentiful

    It centres when the world is lost

    It grounds when things are shaky

    It balances when I struggle to come back

    It speaks when the voice is lost

    Most of all it maintains a state of feeling and being always here, constant anchor like a faithful dog or a trusted old ship that helps me navigate life

    Like a good old tree that stands against all odds and always here to welcome me whatever the weather or season or state of the world

    The one constant – nature! The everlasting light and mother, a life-long friend and companion, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for allowing me to know you truly, love you deeply and relate to you till the end of my days

    Imperfect beauty

    .Reading time 1 minute.

    imperfectly perfect

     

    A tree bent by the wind is still a tree playing with possibilities

    A river still or turbulent is still a river living through flexibility of flow

    A creature with a scar to its skin is still beautiful if not more so, as it speaks to us of the whole

     

    Nature is the ultimate ‘whole’, because it perfectly contains ‘the beauty and the beast’ in all its expression and life cycles. It is both in order and disarray all at the same time. Nature is open to all possibilities, sunny one minute and stormy the next. Nature is the imperfectly perfect representation of how life begins and ends, how it grows, flows, fights and remains still. The beauty of it all is often beyond words. What can be more humbling and awakening than when a human heart feels it deeply and knows the sheer majesty there’s in the natural world.

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