Spirit Matters: Wash yourself in nature’s wisdom

When was the last time you gave your soul a nature bath?

Immersing oneself in nature is cleansing and revitalizing.

I learned this lesson from my dad as a young child. We would go to the neighbors’ house across the street and visit with them in front of their garage. The grownups sat on lawn chairs while I sat alongside them on a wooden crate. Mostly, on these visits, the adults talked and I sat quietly and took in the world around me.

I can’t tell you the exact lessons I learned during these sits because the transmission that takes place between spirit and soul during quiet contemplation happens on a level beyond words.

You listen and, before long, you just know things you cannot learn from a book.

My dad and I also used to sit on the swing on my grandma’s porch, not talking, just quietly breathing, listening and observing the dynamic life of the countryside.

There was a lot to take in, but my favorite part was simply handing myself over to the wind flowing through the trees and the fields, and to allow that wind to flow through my spirit, too.

It never failed to wash away at least some of the stress that comes with daily existence on planet Earth.

I miss those Sunday afternoon sessions with my dad, but the imagery and sensations have so deeply ingrained themselves in my being that I can still close my eyes and pick up where I left off.

I was fortunate to have my grandma’s home and the land it sits on as a great big playground. I was doubly fortunate to grow up in a time that was before technology deluged our lives. Back then, young people went outside to burn off the excess energy that young people naturally have, which gets blocked when they play with their electronics all day.

When you grow up with the gift of existing alongside the vibrant life outdoors, you learn that creation is not something to dominate but something with which to coexist.

Even more than that, you learn that nature itself, having emerged from the same heart of love that we have, has a wisdom all its own, which it shares in its own unique voice.

But since we have become such a hurried, noisy world and are too busy to go outside and sit still for an hour – because it is “boring” – we cannot, and will not, hear the wisdom that is essentially here to heal us of our modern ills.

I participate in a monthly women’s wisdom group online, and I am the youngest member. We are currently on break for the summer, but in one of our sessions, we all shared how our primary desire in life now is to be outside; to appreciate the beauty, vibrancy and verdancy of creation; and to grow in wisdom.

They all go hand in hand.

I suppose it takes the wisdom that comes with age to realize that seeking wisdom above all the passing things this world pretends to offer is, well, the wise thing to do.

And that finding that wisdom can be as simple as spending time outside in all seasons, watching, listening and heeding.

SPIRIT MATTERS is a weekly column by Jerrilyn Zavada Novak that examines experiences common to the human spirit. Contact her at jzblue33@yahoo.com.