We’re nature too. Sometimes I have to go out in nature to remember that. It’s like a subconscious way of letting things find their way. I have a tendency to force things: I want to be a good father. I want to be a good partner. I want to be fair. But when I walk in nature it comes in its own matured, evolved, wise, beautiful way.
Reflecting on nature – in nature
Flemming Christensen is reflecting on nature, while walking in the forest in this episode of “Enneagram insights: Awareness, Presence and Relationships”.
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He asks:
“What is holding you, supporting you, and giving you those special gifts that we get in nature?”
In this blogpost you can read his thoughts on the subject:
Nature’s organic cycle and pace
There’s something very organic about nature, but what I mean with organic is, things are happening in a certain cycle, rhythm, pace.
Things are growing at a certain cycle, pace.
And the things that grow here are the ones that have the right conditions.
And some of the pines and their seed did not find a way to grow roots and become baby trees and take their time.
Some of the trees here, they may be 150, maybe 200 years old.
And I know some of them are not mature enough to have offspring before the age of 80.
And they have to mature at the pace of a tree, closer to ground. And the grasses, they are mature to make more grass in a couple of months.
The inner connection or inner interconnection
I hear birdsong now, but in a couple of months there will be no birds singing, because then they have made their babies and then they stay a little more quiet.
The colors of the flowers, the covers, the floor of the woods are white. And that is pretty handy.
Not trying to be colorful in other ways, because you only need to attract certain insects.
And the height of the raspberries about me has a certain height.
And it is like everything has found its inner connection or its inner interconnection. I see big trees that fell during the storm we had last year.
And the roots are gigantic, but just taken out of earth and put down. We have paths here for horses, where you can take your horse.
And the path is a little softer. So I guess the shoes of the horse is not being broken too much compared to walking on the main path.
And if you walk where the horses also walk, you see the manure of the horse and the party of the insects and flies.
So when I am here on my daily walks, now of course when I am talking, I am consciously reminded of the interconnection and interrelation and the organic dynamic there is here.
Between all the trees and the bushes and the ferns and raspberries and grasses and flowers.
To be part of nature
When I just take my walk in the woods here, I don’t consciously think about all this.
I just take it in.
It is like subconsciously things impact me and remind me of subtle parts of me.
One, that I am also part of nature.
And two, that everything inside of me is very natural and organic and is finding its own way.
That my creativity is finding its own way.
The wisdom working in me is finding its own way.
The fairness in me finds its way.
And the joy of me being a good father and a good partner to Luise, that is also finding its way.
And sometimes I have to go out in nature.
It is like a subconscious way of letting things find their way.
Nature slows us down
I have a tendency to force things:
Oh, I want to be a good father, or I have to be a good partner, or I have to be fair.
But out here it comes in its own matured, evolved, wise, beautiful way.
Nature slows me down.
Part of it is to surrender into nature.
To understand, we are nature too.
Walking meditation
In nature and while walking I have the capacity to see myself and reflect on myself.
And it is not that I want to just blindly accept everything about me.
I would like to consciously accept, if possible, everything about me.
And my walks, I would not say it is a meditation per se, but it feels like a walking meditation.
And I find the pace that fits what is going on inside of me.
A dynamic entity
On my walks in nature it is like my sensations and emotions and thoughts, it is kind of one dynamic entity.
They are not two separated.
One impacts the other.
It is like sitting meditation on pain. I find a place in my body where I have pain. And then just being aware of that.
And then suddenly I see, oh, there is emotion under that pain.
There is a thought under that pain.
There is another emotion.
Oh, the pain changed that inner dynamic of sensations and emotions and thoughts.
It is like that comes so naturally when I am out here.
You and nature
How do you use nature?
How do you connect with nature?
Do you have a chance to take daily walks in nature?
Maybe you live in New York and you have to take a train for an hour or something to get out in nature.
Or maybe just down at the piers and maybe you can find a place to take a walk.
Maybe you live in Cairo.
Then maybe there is a quiet place at the Nile somewhere where you can connect with the water.
Or maybe you find yourself a quiet place where you can be reminded, where nature can remind you about a part of you that normally we rush through in our life and forget:
This is also a part of me.
The desert
I have friends that take a few hours driving and then they are in the desert.
I would love one day to find out how the desert would hold me and take me in.
It is so natural for me to surrender in my Danish woods. But would be going on in the deserts?
I heard you can go on trips where they drive you out a couple of hours in the desert with a tent and food and water.
And then they leave you for ten days.
How would that hold me?
At the training at Spirit Rock, the Buddhist center north of San Francisco, I was talking with one of the young teachers.
She had this time in her life where she was going out in the woods all by herself.
Far away from the place where she was staying there was a place where she could pick up food and water and medicine.
And write a note to the teacher if she needed to.
After a couple of months out there she needed a conversation with the teacher.
And he accepted it and they met.
Nature can hold us.
Sometimes we need a teacher that can hold us.
Letting things find their own way
Do you have a special connection with the woods, the waters, the rivers, the lakes, waterfalls, the desert?
How is it holding you?
What emerges when you’re surrendering and just realizing:
“Hey, we’re nature too.”
Sometimes I have to go out in nature to remember that.
It’s like a subconscious way of letting things find their own way.
Did you know that Flemming Christensen had a Danish podcast, Hverdagspilgrim (Everyday Pilgrim), where he walked every day for a year? And he recorded his experiences while walking.
