with the earth and the natural world, we go into nature taking our idea of separateness with us. So a trip into the ‘bush’ can be a nice enough outing and we may feel a little better temporarily but we still feel separate.
The stones and cliffs, the trees and grasses, the kangaroos and geese; the earth murmuring and breathing, everything connected by contours. Everyone’s outlines move into sharp relief like metal engravings, all the contours of each animal running into other beings, other contours within contours. It –suddenly – all – breathtakingly – makes – sense … at a profound and fundamentally deep level. I breathe and breathe, getting a
glimpse of a deep connection and participation with Country. Breath motivates and moves. Land and life depends on my breath as much as I depend on it. The stones and cliffs, the trees and grasses, the birds and dingoes.
Often if we try feeling a part of nature it simply seems an intellectual concept or that we are forcing an experience that’s not real. Our lives are so filled with stories of separation producing a desperation to fill up the emptiness with consumption, stuff, addictions and people that embodying true nature connection eludes us. Such stories of separation have a
huge cost. On a personal level it can lead to an emptiness in the soul and a deep hunger that we try to fill in all sorts of ways that make it worse. On a community level we are isolated, finding it hard to find fulfilment relating with others. On a global level, a life- threatening separation has developed where we can’t see nature’s needs symbiotically linked to our own – as climate change, species extinction and pollution proves. I am part of the wind and the energies.
I hear the earth murmuring and breathing. I breathe with it – mighty timeless breaths with all life and all time and space.
Breathing
with the trees Trees absorb carbon and release oxygen; humans breathe in oxygen and release carbon. Thus, in simple terms, this can be viewed as a symbiotic relationship. This exercise can be done anywhere there is a tree.
1 2 3 4
Stand in front of the tree, close your eyes and feel the earth under your feet
As you breathe in, imagine breathing in the oxygen released from that tree
Then as you breathe out, imagine the carbon you release being absorbed by that tree
Repeat as many times as you like and watch how
your awareness of the tree and yourself changes.
OCTOBER 2015 17
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