January 22, 2009

• A Break from Winter

  I am feeling so incredibly fortunate and grateful to be living here in this little cabin in this peaceful forest.  Today we here in the Missouri Ozarks had one of our reprieves from winter, with a high in the low 60′s – quite a difference from last week’s low of 5.  It was also a day filled with glorious sunshine, and I worked outside in the forest all day long feeling the deep sense of peace and balance and connection with nature and spirit I have so often found here out in my wooded sanctuary.  I did some maintenance work on one of my trails, made some brush piles for the critters, and cut firewood from some of the massive branches that came down in last year’s ice storms.  I use simple hand tools for all these tasks: a light leaf rake, pruners, and a handsaw.  Today I regained an awareness of various muscles in my arms, shoulders, and back I’d not been using much recently. 

  I like using simple hand tools rather than more powerful tools or power tools for a combination of reasons:
  1. They are blessedly, blissfully Q-u-i-e-t
  2. They are way more eco-friendly to operate
  2. They are more gentle on soil, plants, and trees
  4. They are conducive to slow and meditative work
  5. They encourage me to be in close contact with Earth
  6. They afford a more “timeless” connection with ancestors

  Part of what I love about being here is that I cannot see or hear any other human activity or development.  Instead, the sights and sounds are of nature and I feel so privileged to share this intimacy with mother Earth.  The cabin, while small and rustic, provides for my basic needs.  I feel so blessed to be able to step outside and commune with flora and fauna surrounding me.  I love to listen to the often subtle symphony of nature and gaze upon unbroken forest as far as the eye can see.  I love to breathe slowly and deeply of the open air here that feels so clean and fresh, and to smell the earthy scent of the leaves and soil.  I love to touch the varied textures of bark, moss, and rock.  I love to lay my body right down against the breast of the Earth, to get as close as I can to the source of so many miracles, to entrain my spirit with the rhythm of the Earth.  When I do this, so often my soul fills right up with peace and love overflowing.  I feel the magnificence of Gaia then, of how it feels to be in balance as a part of the greater whole.  I did this today, and I felt this today, and I am so grateful to be fully conscious and alive.

  • 6:30 pm
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