The Outside Within

The great naturalist John Muir, said that when he went out for a walk, he would stay out until sundown, because "going out was really going in." He saw in his relationship with nature, the relationship between all things. He is said to have loved nature like a devotee.

Love is a portal through which we find a quality of spaciousness that holds all of life. It may be love of trees, or love of a fellow human being. It may be love of work, or love of play, or love of music. When we fully devote ourselves to what or whom we love, this space opens in our hearts. Everyone has had a timeless moment-- a moment in which we have lost ourselves so completely that time passes without our knowing it. This happens to some people when they are shopping! In this kind of immersion, the mind drops its self-judgment, its lists, its worry about the future, and you can let go into a deeper quality of space and time.

John Muir said this about trees: "I never saw a discontented tree. They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they travel about as far as we do. They go wandering forth in all directions with every wind, going and coming like ourselves..."

The tree is not discontent because it holds fast to what it loves -- the earth!

What do you love? What do you hold fast to? What anchors you to this world?

Here are some ideas:
1. Take two hours to completely immerse yourself in an activity you love but haven't done for a while.
2. If you are in a relationship with someone, sit down and write out all of the things that you love about that person, and have loved over time. Drop the "yes, but" stories, and go for the love. Write at least twenty things. As you write, drop your awareness to your heart so that you write from the heart and not the head.
3. Write down all of the things that you love about your life. This includes the structures around you, the nature, the people, the activities. Again, drop your awareness deeper into the heart, so that you are writing from there.
4. Contemplate love. What is it? How does it come into a person's life? Does it come from the outside, or does it come from the inside? Is there any difference?!