Nature has always been a source of inspiration, wisdom and meaning-making for me. Two years ago, my partner and I chose to relocate from the city to the Northern Oregon Coast, in large part to be closer to nature.
Connecting daily with the rugged beauty of the natural world continues to be a huge resource for me in terms of navigating and managing the stress and overwhelm of modern life.
Nature generously gifts me with constant reminders of the “bigger” picture: that in spite of the constraint of our personal lives, our human abuses and dramas, the world is still pulsing and beating and breathing all around us. That beauty still abounds. . .
Moments like last week, when I was outside at predawn and heard a curious sound. I could have sworn it was a loon call.
Then the next morning, predawn, there it was again. A trembling, cascading trill that called out over and over, with another answering in kind. (Click here to heart a sample of the call!)
And the thrill of amazement that I felt come over my entire body as I looked up in the sky and saw three loons flying overhead against the graying sky quietly yielding to the dawn.
I have never heard a loon call on the Pacific Coast. So it was a magical bucket list moment that I didn’t even know existed for me until I encountered it in my own backyard!
When I experience this kind of privilege, these moments of witnessing spontaneous and wild beauty, I feel a sense of connection to something larger.
And this connection to something larger, helps me hold tenderly the very real fears that crop up daily for me about the state of the world, our planet, humanity.
Nature is a regulation practice for me….something that I return to over and over again. An exercise in growing my trust and taking a wide-aperture perspective on the delicate balance within which we are all embedded.