Just a moment… noticing nature

The Joyful Nature 28 days of #EverdayNature Experiment is underway!

Over on Facebook a bunch of lovely people are sharing what they’ve noticed in nature each day, and we’ve had everything from a snake, to rainbows, to a single tree standing on an urban, city street.

Today I went for a “nature amble” with the intention of looking for signs of Autumn. I was surprised by what I found…

Yes, I found berries, and mushrooms, and acorns, but I also saw caterpillars, and butterflies, and trees with green leaves not yet ready to fall.

It can be so easy to take our seasonal cues from the man-made world about us:

autumn clothing is filling the shops, adverts for “order your sofa in time for Christmas” are showing on the TV, and the central heating has been turned on in my office.

But what happens when we actually stop, just for a moment, and connect with what’s happening in the natural world? Is it autumn? Or are we actually in the fifth season: called ‘late summer’ in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Joseph Cardillo PhD quite rightly notes:

We are not living “with nature.” We are part of it. This connection flows through all that we are and do.

He offers the following descriptions of the five seasons:

Spring: Embrace the Power of New Beginnings

Summer: Create Abundance

Late Summer: Gain Rootedness

Autumn: Find the Justice of Letting Go

Winter: Dream of Quietude

(See the full Huff Post article for an easy summary of the five seasons and our connection with them.)

So, when you know and feel yourself to be a part of nature, when you pause for just a moment to connect with the season and landscape around you and with your own inner season and landscape

…what do you discover?

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2 Comments

  1. I love the themes of these seasons and it is so true that observing helps us be aware of the reality, and of the transition time between seasons. So this is the time to gain rootedness, what a time to treasure.

    • Like you, I’m treasuring this time between times to notice what’s going on outside in nature but also inside myself. The daily practice of noticing #EverydayNature seems to help.

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