Nature's Spiritual Principles

While walking in my beloved forestland, I am keenly aware of the effect the forest has on my senses. As much as I love dancing and its affect on my attitude and mood, I need my nature walks to balance me out. Thinking happens there. Understanding issues and gaining answers also happen. Listening, observing, feeling into Nature brings spiritual lessons that could use reinforcement and confirmation, such as:

Divine Timing

From Ecclesiastes 3:

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted…

In our local forests, I observe Nature’s divine timing. Spring is here, and so are tiny shoots and buds and baby birds and bunnies. There will also be nettles to look out for because one brush provides stinging evidence of their defense mechanisms, and flying and crawling bugs will wake up as well. The leaves on the alders and maples are a light happy green. To me, this is what abundance looks like. Everything shines and sparkles in the sun. Potential is everywhere. I am smilier in springtime, and Nature seems to smile right back. I want to plant seeds, hatch new ideas, get going and creating and dance in the grass. So I do!

That said, we just went through a dark and cold Winter. For me, it's a time to go within and follow the path of my heart rather than my exuberant loud mind. I like the quiet darkness of winter—it’s my favorite writing and thinking time. Yet I am also mindful that life is slowed down by noisier weather: strong winds blow, and, we all—animals and humans—are forced to pause. I can’t tell you how many trees were downed in the forest, but I can tell you that when I came upon some of their huge limbs and trunks and smashed branches blocking my passage, I said a prayer of thanks for divine timing. If I had walked while a tree gave in to the powerful winds or the heavy snow or the brittleness of age, I would be in a world of hurt. It always amazes me how many opportunities there are to get hurt. And yet, I am not there at the time of the fall downs and crashes. Thank you divine timing!

Forces of Nature

Creation

There are spiritual forces at play in nature: Things are being formed and things are breaking down. Creation moves through the universe and creates everything there is. The great mystery is this: Why is anything created at all? Why is there an existence of you or me or a sugar ant or a fir tree? Hence our beliefs that there is a Universal Force—aka God or Source or Creator or Great Spirit—that is behind and above and below and all around creating creating creating....

Essence

There are other forces at play too. “To every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven….” Things are created with purpose: there is an essence to why they are here: Wild roses grow and bloom; their essence of beauty and fragrance attracts pollinator bees and birds to keep them in the cycle of life. Yet they also have thorns whose essence is to provide defense against other predators.

Destruction

There is also the force of destruction at play: We humans see this as a negative force. Yet destruction is within earth’s life cycle: Things and people and ideas and animals die all the time. On my forest walks, I see the dregs of the leaves and plants that died last Fall. They are fertilizing the earth to make sure their progeny are fed. I am in love with Nurse trees: Old stumps from human activities or old fallen trees provide fertile nurseries for new sprouts: baby trees, as well as huckleberries, ferns, moss—the most beautiful gardens spring up on these nurseries.

Destruction holds all in balance. Without the divine force of destruction, over growth and overpopulation happens. In our own bodies, cells create and re-create organs and bones and blood and nerves. Yet, unchecked, cells that grow without regard for the host can actually kill the host. Balance is everything, and balance includes the force of destruction: releasing and letting go that which has met its time—allowing it to return to Source.

In the Balance

Nature holds all in balance—the earth revolves around the sun and allows some parts to bask in the sun for longer periods of times and some to be in the shadows. There are times of peace and sunshine, and there are times of rain and storm. If you live in the Pacific Northwest US, and you grumble about the grayness and rain, remember that the green beauty of our region is there but for the grace of the rain: too much sun will destroy this way of life and with the rains comes life.

Because of our human will to conquer nature, we witness the effects of life lived without regard to the balancing forces of nature. In case you haven’t noticed, the storms are upon us—literally. Nature does its very best to bring life into balance: Big winds and fires and waves of water are the way Nature cleanses and renews. Yet, we ego-bound humans often see the powers of Nature as a curse—I mean, villages and homes are swept away, and people and animals and plants die.

Yet if we tuned into what these winds and fires and waters are trying to tell us, we might approach life in a different way—working with Nature’s forces rather than railing against them.

The great lesson is about balance: How much of our modern human lives are in balance? I love modern conveniences: electricity and lighting and indoor plumbing and heat. I typed these words on a laptop. I tuned into my email and social media to see what’s happening and where I might want to be. Humans are clever enough to use the forces of nature to create shelters and cook delicious food and maintain connections to other humans.

But we also create disconnection. We sit inside and gaze at screens. We walk outside and gaze at them too. While walking the streets on a recent sunny day, I counted 8 out of 10 people with phones in their hands, and 6 of them were staring at said screens and almost walked right into me. We are in love with life on a screen. Yet as we gaze and play games and obsessively tune into the madness and the fantasy, nature still exists.

As we do our human thing, Nature always communicates, telling us: “Slow down! Listen! Observe! You are out of balance and so I will do something to bring you into balance. You, my dear fellow creations, are a part of Nature too. You are created, you live for however long you live, and then you are destroyed and return to Source.”

So ask yourself: Where am I out of balance? And importantly: What brings me balance? What is my own nature trying to tell me? That tummy ache or that headache or that tingling down my spine are Nature’s messages for me to pay attention.

Small is mighty

One more lesson to share: The small can have a huge effect on the large. Viruses and bugs and bacteria are abundant on this planet…all are part and parcel of Nature’s balancing act. In our own guts, there are bacteria which break down our intake into nutrients and waste. And when they are out of whack, the whole system will break down.

In the forest, invasive insects bring down huge trees. Viruses can sicken and wipe out populations of deer. The small affects the large. The small can affect the large in positive ways too: Tiny microbes provide nutrients for moss and ferns, and fungal spores create prospering mushroom colonies. Small bees pollinate, small birds do too.

In our everyday lives, Nature tells us that even our small actions can make a difference in maintaining balance. For instance, sugary treats are wonderful, but we cannot live on sugar alone--too much throws our system out of balance and creates a poor quality of life. So making small adjustments to our eating habits can have great benefits to our health and well being.

Just as a small stone dropped into a pond has a ripple effect throughout the pond, so too our actions have a ripple effect. Small kindnesses, a word, an offering; making sure our fellow humans and animals are cared for, planting seeds to reforest or rehabilitate, and weeding out that which doesn’t belong--these small things are within our powers to act upon, and they all make a big difference.

So let Nature sing you a song of the seasons: go inside yourself in Winter, dance in exuberance in Spring, rejoice in Summer’s abundance, harvest the bounty in Fall.

If we pay attention, we will know what to do and when to do it. We will know we are an important part of Nature’s plan, as are the birds and flowers and thorns. We will live life in balance.