dailyconnectionwithnature feature Mental Health nature water

Searching for joy

July 18, 2021

I had thought to write an inspiring caption for this short film of yesterday’s beautiful wild encounter (swipe left). I took off clothes, swam naked and free, but sometimes I find it hard to write with joy when there’s so much misery in the world.

I read the words of a man who worked in an industrial pig farm and the disgusting ways he abused innocent animals just because he could exercise some power. I then felt overwhelmed by the knowledge that this single action is just one grain of sand on the desolate beach of our existence and had a visceral reaction, my ears rang heavy and loud, my body coursed with heat, I wanted to vomit.

Then I had to remember that he probably goes home to his wife and is a great dad and friend. People are multi-layered and most of us are traumatised by this world – nobody acts in this way otherwise.

When my spiritual awakening first hit, it was a tsunami flattening all the nonsense structures I’d built to maintain my Self, all the internal walls that separated this soul from nature; it meant there was no escaping the knowledge that We Are One.

This understanding is something I continue to struggle with today – how can this be so? How can these atrocities occur and I am connected, I am part of it all? The shadow self is enough to contend with, but humanity’s shadow is monstrous.

When I feel this way I walk, or swim, or cycle outdoors, and nature reminds me yes, We Are One, and that is also the soft water cradling my ageing body, and that is the family of oystercatchers squeaking protectively on the nearby shore, and that is the light from a raging star gently warming my face, and sometimes that just has to be enough.

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