A Meditation Exercise

Sometimes there is so much going around us as we are sitting out in nature. It is easy to miss it if were not paying attention or just connecting with it. In all reality, it isn't that hard to connect either. We just have to stop and slow ourselves down and allow the connection.

For a simple meditation exercise, find a nice, comfortable place outside. Take some paper and something to write with. Sit in a moment of silence and meditation as you center yourself and allow yourself to open up.

Then, begin writing down short and simple thoughts of all that you observe, feel, see, sense, smell of what is going on around you. Record the individual things as simple thoughts one line right after another.

If you are visual, you might draw little simple pictures if that helps or you might color a picture. Connect in the way that is appropriate for you.

As you keep doing this, you will notice that you hear more, see more and observe more. What may have been there before, might have been hidden from you as you were not in the space to take it in. But, as you keep tuning into that which is around you, an amazing thing happens. It is like someone turns up the observation and you experience so much more.

There is much going on around us and we miss so much of it. Stopping to connect with it, helps us center our lives, find truth for our day and keeps us in the flow of gratitude and life. Without it, our lives can feel like the glass that is half empty. Nature is here for us to be a part of, not to just exist as if the day is hurrying by. Let us all stop and say hello to nature. It wants to be noticed.

For an example, here is my list of what I wrote today. It is interesting how it really flowed together as I went back to read it. And I especially like at the end, how it came together into words that I needed to here - all seems to fit together.

Just sitting here
Listening to the birds
For they are many
One single chirp
One triple chirp
The light shines on the wood
The colors vary
Greens, browns, reds, white
Against a deep blue sky
Soft gentle breeze
Air feels humid and warm
Shadows cast by the morning sun
Tree branches wiggle slightly
Water shimmers as it rests
A dog barks in the distance
Another answers close by
Faint sounds of trucks and cars
The pin wheel goes round
Another bird joins in
The grass glistens with morning dew
A jet flies overhead
Wispy thin clouds drift by
A squirrel plays close by
A butterfly floats along
Birds chirp in chorus
Time for another day
All seems to fit together
In nature all is one



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