Nature is My Medicine

[First Posted May 2010]

How strange that Nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude!
~Emily DickinsonI only went out for a walk and finally concluded
to stay out till sundown for going out, I found, was really going in.
~John Muir

I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station,
Through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.~ George Washington Carver

Early last evening as the sun was setting, while snuggled on the couch with the little monsters and talking with a friend on the phone, I could see out a window overlooking the forest that runs along the Hudson river to the west. The night sky was quite clear with only a few clouds, and some stars were just visible. But what really caught my attention was the very large, very bright twinkling light just above the trees, which I thought at first might have been a hovering helicopter's spotlight. But it continued to stay still for way too long, and when I saw the much tinier light of a plane go by it, I had to mention to my friend on the phone that I was seeing something very strange. I'm in Manhattan, and although my friend lives in Queens across the East River, he could also see the very large light in the sky. We both saw it as a brilliant golden white, which was flickering so much that it appeared to be moving, but actually wasn't. Some of the shafts of light streaming from it were of the most beautiful bluebird blue and emerald green.

Were the Three Magi heading towards it on the Staten Island Ferry? Hopefully not, if they got the same idea and googled it on their iphones to discover it can only be the other divinity —Venus — sometimes called the Morning Star, but at this time of the year, it's known as the Evening Star. It will appear as a brilliant yellow star in the evening sky, right after sunset, until late September 2010. Located 20° above the western horizon one hour after sundown, it will remain on view until after 10 P.M. local daylight time. This gift of Nature was the most perfect ending to any day I could ever imagine.

But the gifts of Nature don't just come out at night. This morning, although I slept fairly well, I had a difficult time getting up. Tim mentioned that the electromagnetic fields of the Earth are very active right now, switching polarities, and moving around, which affects how people and animals feel and think. I could see it was a glorious day and had a few hours before I had to begin work, so forced myself to go for a run in the woods; it wasn't easy. I was glad to finally rest on a bench at the top of a slight hill overlooking some fields and the river. The sun shining on the grass made it a brilliant green, and there were lots of birds and bugs hopping around in it. I noticed what looked like a very tiny, brilliant yellow bird in the grass about 25 feet away, and I could see its little head bobbing up and down — but unlike the other birds which were very busy swooping and landing and taking off, it stayed in the same spot, not moving around, which I though odd; I feared it might be hurt. Or maybe it wasn't a bird. After five very long minutes, I carefully made my way closer, and could see that it was indeed a little yellow bird - a finch - and that it was carefully but joyfully sipping water from the dew still wet on the blades of grass. It continued to drink, and I marveled that such a little thing could be so thirsty and drink so much water.

I then noticed just how wet the field was, which was waving slightly in the breezes, and the drops of dew were lit up and twinkling, very much like miniature Venuses in a sea of grass and flowers. The whole expanse seemed alive, and the dew drops grew larger, somehow, and I fell into an altered state of consciousness that had no sense of time, only of the glowing points of light glittering all around me, and of the sounds of birds singing in ecstasy in the background. When I finally headed back to my home, I felt I had been transported to a new level of life, energized and at peace. Nature is my medicine, as Sarah Moss-Wolfe once said.

As it also says in The Risen — and which directly reflects my experience of just being quiet and still, waiting, and achieving a transformation —

Modern humankind has largely forgotten that we are an integral and inseparable part of Nature—that we are Nature. People listen more to the simulate self’s artificial instructions instead of the indwelling natural ones that arise from the awareness of being an inseparable component of Nature. Animals, birds, trees, flowers, and butterflies do not have an interfering ego-mind. “Survival of the fittest” does not mean that certain beings have to destroy others in order to live, although that is how the ego-mind justifies its own beliefs. It means that all components of Nature are in a continual process of experiencing how all living things fit together. The Energy of Nature, which is also our energy, does not play any mind games in order to survive, for Nature simply is—and we simply are, too.

The ego-mind’s misdirecting chatter can be softened by quietly resting within Nature—walking in a meadow or gazing up through the trees at the stars. In joining Nature, we join as Authentic Self. Allowing the inner-dwelling Authentic Self to quietly emerge and observe and take in the surroundings of Nature will calm and soothe the ego-mind, which especially malfunctions when it perceives threats coming from other ego-minds. If we sit quietly and long enough in some setting of Nature, the ego-mind will be unable to continually perceive a threat. It will then subside in its negative ways, at least temporarily, and be still for a while.

The more we allow such quiet sitting, the more familiar we’ll become with the feeling of the ego-mind receding. Spend this time quietly observing a tree, for instance. The ego-mind will not be able to get a tree to play mind games with it. Our Self-As-Nature—Authentic Self—can then emerge, and from there we’ll begin to re-identify with the rest of Nature around us. Feelings of alienation, loneliness, and abandonment will begin to become lighter.