When I returned to the garden this afternoon after a particularly good lunch I noticed a few changes.\u00a0 The earth and brick were wet, the pool had been cleared by the heavy rain, and big pink puffy flowers had started to bloom on one of the hedges where the songbirds hide.\u00a0 What was most striking, however, was the jagged stone stump where the sundial used to stand.\u00a0 Whether “time” had been removed by some pointedly destructive force or by some serendipitous mishap I can’t be sure, but the reflections that it invited while I stood alone between the four brick walls today were wonderful and I’m glad they happened.<\/p>\n
Nature has\u00a0a way of blurring the boundaries of time.\u00a0 This can extend to include the weight of structure, of deadlines, and of pressing obligations.\u00a0 Venturing into the natural world suspends personal and societal expectations in precious reprieve.\u00a0 There’s a weightlessness and freedom in\u00a0becoming immersed\u00a0in\u00a0the swell of\u00a0the natural world\u00a0where the only thing that matters is being present in and receptive to a single, vital moment.\u00a0 We Earthlodgers often marvel at this phenomenon on our weekend trips.\u00a0 On those rare occasions when we rise early to sleepwalk down to the van waiting well-stocked with bagels and coffee, we get the chance to leave our habitual surroundings and explore campsites, riverbanks, rocky cliffs, and wintery wetlands in invigorated unison.\u00a0 Once there, it’s easy to leave the burden of collegiate responsibility behind–if\u00a0only for a few hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sometimes, amid the anxiety of surging heedlessly from task to task, we\u00a0fall victim to numb, auto-pilot productivity.\u00a0\u00a0 During these busy\u00a0days, weeks, months, and semesters when we become so overencumbered that we lament\u00a0a lack of time, perhaps we’re overlooking the solution to our distress.\u00a0 In the garden today, I found relief in allowing that time I so vehemently craved to dissolve away entirely.\u00a0 I remembered a stillness I had neglected, and reinstated it.\u00a0 The natural world asks nothing of us other than an exclusively active consciousness, a quality of being aware and in-tune to the sweet quiet, the simple, and the sublime.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Naked As We Came<\/a> – Iron and Wine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I returned to the garden this afternoon after a particularly good lunch I noticed a few changes.\u00a0 The earth and brick were wet, the pool had been cleared by the heavy rain, and big pink puffy flowers had started … Continue reading