In lingering uncertainty, let nature nurture

Oh, my dear friends, what is there to say? Over the past year my conversations with you have been focused on resilience and navigating uncertainty, all the while thinking things would be getting better soon. Not yet. For so many in the world today, waking up to a healthy, safe, and peaceful world is unlikely.

At times like these, it can feel hard or even wrong to allow happiness in. And yet, when cynicism, hopelessness, and despair come knocking, it seems right to open the door. I’m learning to trust the wisdom in letting them in. These feelings belong to me, and when I attend to them they begin to diminish, making room for happiness once more.

When we are “in” our fear, we sometimes overlook or forget the life-support our connection to the natural world offers us. Tuning into this connection reminds us that the freshness of morning air can fill our emptiness with inspiration, that our lunchtime apple balances our salty attitude with its juicy sweetness, and that we are in a beautiful symbiotic relationship with our little office plant … sigh.

So today, I invite you to join me in opening our senses to the natural world and to play with new ways of being with our fears and the uncertainties of life. It is OK not to be OK. It is also OK to be OK.

xo – s

PS: This poem by Wendall Berry was my inspiration. I went looking to find what inspires him. Here’s an article I found that tells me enough to know I want to be more like him. I love poets, writers, and artists who provoke and inspire me. I hope you’ll share your favorites with me!

The Peace of Wild Things, by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.