the art of praising nature

so yesterday, I went out and practiced

So yesterday, I went out and practiced.

I stepped out in the early morning to connect with the plum tree standing tall in front of my home. Its millions of blossoms on the verge of bursting open. A starlight-sky of beauty, overflowing abundance, a gift to the earth. The contrast of the old, solid, tall tree, carrying such softness of white petals, in all stages of opening – it blew me out.

photo: claus visby

Spring is such a wonderful time of the year to practice the art of praising nature!

So many countless myriad aspects – wherever you put your eye, there is beauty, abundance, so much abundance, overflowing richness. The amount of flowers on one single tree! Spilling over. Spilling over in gracious, generous offering of beauty. Simply.

Without any cause or reason or take back or ask back.

Like this forest meadow of wild garlic. Millions of fresh juicy green leaves. Overspilling. If you collect one, there will be a half-dozen sprouting in its place. An abundant offering of vitamins, fresh healthy nutrients, powerfood. Springing naturally out of this dry barren earth after the long winter time.

And on the other side, I grieve deeply: Why have we human beings become so blind, oblivious to this beauty and overwhelming generosity? Yes, we may walk past on our lunch walk, chattering, chattering – either silently inside our minds, or with the person we have come to walk with. Perhaps our rational parts will say “oh wow, beautiful”. But does this really SINK IN? Touch us, DEEP down, stirring awe and wonder, tenderness and love for these colourful, harmonious, vibrant life forms we call “nature”.

And through this disconnect no wonder we do such a thing as e.g. cutting trees. Why do we cut trees? Why do human beings cut trees? (OK, wood is a justifiable renewable resource). But there are many other – in my view less justifiable – reasons: They may be in the way, they may take away the view, they might fall on your roof, you might need them out of the way to clear space for building your dream house…

I came across this site on my evening walk a few days back. THIS TREE. He used so stand so venerably, proudly, solidly. And tonight I come down and see this. My heart aches, cries out in pain and deep-felt sorrow.

For the killing of this tree – why on earth did this tree need to go?? – and for the human way of taking decisions: Narrow-minded. Short-sighted. Gain-oriented. Disconnected, numb to felt-sensed connection with the wild, animated world, the universal source of life

This ancient tree was probably over 100 years old. And was cut down in just one afternoon. A battlefield of machine-sawed-off branches, barren, lying around scattered. Dead. This is just as much a battle – on a local scale, and happening in countless places all around, while man narrows in onto nature – as the larger battles going on in the world right now.

My heart aches, cries out, for the way nature is treated as an object, to be dealt with. As per human’s needs requirements, desires, aversions.

Touched, troubled by this encounter, I reinforce my intention:

May I find my best possible place, my best possible role(s) to serve nature. Towards healing of the relationship of Humankind with Nature. So that this destruction will cease and leave space for growing consciousness. Conscious connection, care, respect, love for nature. Nature not as a thing, an object, an arena. Nature as all that lives. The universal, complex interrelationship of life on earth

As I continue to practice this Art of Praising and Grieving, I start to feel from deep within a renewed connection, tenderness, love. A reciprocally, returned sense of being loved, being welcome, being held and appreciated by Nature – or even something Universal, Greater than Me.

A sense of gratitude is emanating from that plum tree, from the simple fact that I notice, that I actually turn my full-sensed, alert, conscious attention towards it, to take fully in its beauty and its wonder.

I let it do its work on my senses, my psyche and my whole being.

So, the second part of our homework was to create an Altar – “a wild, temporary earth altar, composed of elements of the earth”. With the intention to communicate: “I see you and I offer this beauty back to you as a gift.”

I am not an artist. I don’t think I relate strongly with creating art 🙂 So I took it easy, simply placed these objects available closest to me, one by one. (I did not want to pick live flowers in full bloom. so I took these withered ones. And the wood parts I took home as remembrance from the site of the felled tree.)

And again – this unexpected sudden rush of affection and tenderness, somewhere in the air, reciprocal. From the mere fact of giving my full, appreciative attention to these beautiful objects of nature.

I am falling short of words, trying to grasp the multi-facetted depth of sensation, yet unknown to me, although I have been practicing and celebrating nature connection for many years now. It is another level. And I know: This is the key. To nature care. Because it comes from a deep sensed-felt comittement to reciprocal love and appreciation.