This Lent, I have been using a tool called “Growing a Rule of Life.” Each day there is a video and a prompt question to engage with. And of course, I’m behind already.
Friday’s video reminded me that we need structure, we need planning, we need the framework in place before we start these kinds of disciplines, and the very fact that I didn’t schedule time for my days off and for Sunday (which is always a hectic day in my world) proves the point.
The question we were left with that day is simple: when you connect with nature, what is meaningful about it?
When I truly connect with nature, I find that I, myself, my ego, is diminished. So much of my life is spent working and relating and living my life and everything revolves around myself and my calling and what I’m supposed to do or not do.
Yet when I truly connect with nature, all of that ceases.
I still my soul.
I stop.
And I am humbled by the reminder that there is so much else going on in the world that is not me.
The falling of snow flakes. The robins in the trees. The buds already forming. The hawk gliding overhead. The slow decomposition of the leaves that are life and death all wrapped into one.
And all of it continues without me.
In fact, all of this life probably would do a lot better without our human interference and selfish use and abuse of the world.
When I truly connect with nature, I am overcome with how small I am, and how beautiful the world is.
My soul cannot help but be awed by our Creator.
So much of the time, I’m rushing here and there, from meeting to project, to home and back.
Without creating space to stop and pause and connect with the world around us, I will forget who I am. I will forget how insignificant these tasks are in the grand scheme of things. I will forget that it is not about me… but my Creator.
