Listening for Gratitude

Lockdown. Quarantine. The words of our current world situation, along with so many others. They are words of separation, of seclusion, perhaps of detention, and we resist them, and the situations they describe. From an early age, we seek freedom, learning (hopefully!) at some point that freedom means many things, and is not just a license to do as we please whenever we want. Sometimes these words are the ‘medicine’ we need, much as we may not like it, but hoping it will not be required for long, and that we will heal. We are social beings, and ‘alone’ is not generally something we actively seek, yet much of the world has found themselves in small groups, hoping it will help stop the pathogens of the pandemic we now face. We long for social contact: dinners with friends, church services, movie-theaters, sports events, days on the beach. These will return, but what to do until they do? The natural world, be it a hiking trail, a mountain lake, a local park, or even just the trees in your own backyard starting to blossom, producing tiny leaves, as Spring moves more fully into our lives, is a wonderful option. While it may not be the ideal ‘escape’ we long for, simply taking time to notice the rebirth of the earth after winter helps us to shift to a different perspective.

To notice the progress of the various flowers and trees blooming is amazing, though you have to really take the time to look at what is happening. A beautiful rose is always stunning to behold, but to watch it open, just a little, day-by-day, from tiny bud to maturity, helps tune us into a different frequency. From this new position, new for most of us who rush through the world knowing that such things happen, yet rarely make time to actually see them occur, it is nature’s way of helping quiet our minds. It also lets us know that there are things bigger, more vast, than ourselves. Then, once we are open to this, we can listen for gratitude. The gratitude of being able to experience the natural world, in whatever great or small way we can, in cities or in the country, that allows us to let go. There are no deadlines here, no right or wrong answers, only the truth. There is something about gratitude that opens us up, allowing possibilities we may never have considered before, to become more fully human, and to be connected with a silence that allows us to listen and to hear the sounds and vibrations that we couldn’t possibly have heard with the noise in our heads.

The natural world is one way of allowing us to come to stillness and quiet. The sound of the wind, of water in a stream or a fountain, the laughter of children are others that pull us from our concerns and give us a new perspective. This outward focus, leaving our ‘inside’ life behind for a time, and being able to really see those people and things that surround us, gives our lives deeper meaning, and gratitude is simply there.