Smelling the Roses

For the past couple of weeks I have been exuding with enthusiasm over the sights and sounds of the River Shannon, the wildlife, the vegetation, the rushing tributaries and so forth. Today I was walking along a river path and spotted the most amazing tree I have ever seen. It is at least 400 years old and likely older and words can not do justice to the majesty and energy of this tree. I spent time communing with this magnificent tree that I had passed by a dozen times and not noticed until today.

That is the whole point of this blog entry. I find that I am noticing more and more each day as I walk the paths and take foot bridges over the river to campus. This is not only due in part to the repetition of walks, but because I am becoming more attuned to all that is around me. I am less distracted than I have ever been and my sensibilities to nature are stirring and rousing and I am waking up. Why is this? Why is our modern life so ridiculously busy and distracting that we do not take the time to true smell the roses. This clique is well worn, but its intention is well meaning. What I am trying to tell you is that I have not felt this connected to nature since I was a little girl. Throughout my childhood I played in the woods, built dams in the waterfall, and hunted jack-in-the-pulpits. Why did I let that, which I loved so much and that, which is so much a part of me escape me for so long?

Life has many responsibilities and distractions. We work, raise families, and attend to every one's needs. There are many demands. We all have them. I now understand that I had not made this deep connection with my surroundings a priority. I know others who do this and their time in the woods is a deeply spiritual when they spend connecting with their deeper nature and to the earth. I had let this slip away, thinking, no, not thinking about the absolute necessity to connect to that, which we are so profoundly a part of...better late than never.

Today I connected with this spectacular specimen of a tree. I stopped and gazed up high into its branches that were thick, muscular like a weight lifter's arms,and long and extending over the creek towards the far bank. I touched this tree and it touched me so deeply that I am still moved to tears.

We all live in beautiful places and what I wish for you is that you will truly take the time to find a place of natural beauty and connect, deeply connect and feel your place on this earth. Please make it a top priority. Make it a necessity of your life. Turn off the TV, the computer and the cell phones and go sit by a waterfall,walk in the woods,visit a state forest. Listen, touch, smell, use your senses and then go beyond them. What ever you do, go with the intention of really connecting with what is around you and I promise you that in doing so you will connect more deeply with yourself than you have done in perhaps a very long time.