Robin sings and brings new beginnings of Spring
As willing adults, we are able to trust, be curious, be enthused, be pleased with ourselves, and be fully generous once again. We are able to know and feel and experience the peace, joy, and love creatively produced by Mother Nature as we live in harmony with Her. Gregge Tiffen (Mother Nature – May, 2007)
I’m feeling my childlike nature come alive as the temperatures warm, the songbirds sing songs of courtship, and the green of new growth appears on the aspens and cottonwoods. The creek is flowing more freely and swiftly, and budding cones are forming on the pines. Will I embrace new growth and life as my sandbox? Or, will I succumb to the dreary news and the ways of the world that grate like sandpaper on my soul?
The bright green of new growth as the snow melts and Cottonwood Creek flows
I have children on my mind and in my heart this week. Up close and personal, my stepson’s daughter is about to celebrate completing her third year on the planet and begin her fourth. We haven’t met yet other than via the wonders of technology, yet she’s always in my heart. That same heart aches at the suffering we humans have created for one another, especially for the children who face survival early on in life. Surely we can do better. We must.
It is the nature of a child to be trusting, curious, enthusiastic, satisfied with self, and generous. Those childlike ways of being are pure energetic qualities that we each have access to. They are the sandbox of life.
Somewhere along the way sandpaper arrived on the scene. We lost touch with our nature. Someone, maybe many, told us it was time to ‘grow up’ or ‘get serious’. They didn’t understand that life is a sandbox. Education and other systems of the world echoed this sad message.
The curious eyes of Cool Hand Luke trained on a turkey vulture high on a limb stretching to dry its wings
But changing our nature is not the way of nature. In nature there is consistency, nurturing, and growth. From a seed in the ground a tiny sapling pushes through the earth and, through all of its years, fulfills the pattern in its seed. It keeps on being that tree through cycles, weather events, nesting birds and insects who find a home there.
In staying true to its nature, the tree invites us to do likewise – stay true to our nature as trusting, curious, enthusiastic, self-satisfied, generous beings. As humans with consciousness, awareness and free will it is our choice to do so. Or not. Moment to moment, day to day we can develop our capacity to return to the life affirming nature of our childlike ways.
We do so by accepting the care and protection of the Universe and having unwavering trust in that protection. We experiment curiously with life’s events to discover how life works (and, in the process, we discover things that don’t). We expect and allow our curiosity to nurture enthusiasm as we experiment, explore, and, yes, even when things don’t turn out as we aimed for them to. We allow ourselves to be satisfied. Even when we think we’ve fallen short, we trust that we gave it our best shot and that tomorrow will dawn anew. Finally we give what we naturally have to give – a warm smile, a hug, a word of encouragement, a helping hand, a laugh and, oh, so much more.
When we embrace life’s events as a sandbox with everything needed to build castles in the sky, the rub of sandpaper fades away and we move forward in our natural state to create the world, our world, anew.
Spring! A fertile time for bunnies, ideas, and other new growth.