Tune Into the Calendar of Nature
An Inner-World Exploration
What if we had no clocks? What if we had no calendars? What would our lives feel like? Look like?
There would be a flow. A gradual easing into and easing out of our days, our months, our years.
Can you imagine being awakened by the first light of a rising sun with no time structure to your day? How patient it is. You gradually ease out of sleep and become aware of where you are and what you might choose as the light unfolds.
And evenings. The darkness would dictate what you could or could not do. That could be alleviated by a campfire or a full moon, but the darkness of nature would signal the end of your day.
I wonder if we can recapture that feeling of flow.
Nature simply unfolds
A bud breaks into a flower when it’s ready. There’s no due date. An apple ripens on the tree but not all the apples are doing the same thing at the same time. It’s an individual coming to maturity.
A gradual growing into maturity, do you allow yourself that? Are you patient with your own growth? Are you patient with the unfolding of a pattern, a project, an insight?
Think what happens to your life if you no longer feel the need to control anything! There are no deadlines, just a sense of right timing. A step planned for a certain day, may be changed because of the weather – too nice to stay indoors, or too wet to go out. We adjust to the weather, but less so than if we actually lived in nature.
Farmers plant when the moon suggests by her waxing and waning. Crops are ready to harvest whenever they are ready to harvest and that depends on what nature has provided.
There’s no timetable in nature, there’s only unfolding
When I allow my life to unfold, there’s no deadline. There’s only steady movement that varies as the natural cycle unfolds.
No deadlines. No have-to’s. Only moments of tuning in to feel what needs to be done next, and then choosing to do them, or not. Listening to your inner voice for guidance. Observing the signs and signals of nature. Let the cycles of nature guide your progress.
All change simply unfolds
Your hair grows longer a very slight bit at a time. One day it’s fine and the next day it falls into your eyes. An overnight change that has been gradual in the making.
Take a daily walk and gradually you can walk farther and faster.
Embrace a change that gradually unfolds.
You can’t push and shove change into happening
You can only invite change. You can only observe ongoing change and adjust your movements to its gradual unfolding.
We change. Others change. Our world changes. Sometimes the changes are subtle. Sometimes they are blatant and sudden. But change is an ongoing given.
There are unfolding signs of change in nature. Small subtle signs. A little more color in an opening bud. A new tassel on a corn stalk, a hatchling bird in the nest, a newborn calf. There’s no timetable for those births, those emergents. There’s only unfolding, in a natural cycle in a natural timetable.
What if you let it all go and listened?
Each day I begin with a spiritual practice that can vary. Each day I sit at my desk and check in to see what nature would ask of me today. An idea comes up. I see if it feels aligned. I do it or I don’t. I allow my inner voice, my inner wisdom to guide me.
Each day I choose one housekeeping task. But I never decide when to do it. If I seem to be putting it off, I begin to focus on how good I will feel when the task is complete. That usually gets me moving. But I choose one task and the timing is allowed to unfold.
When an idea pops in, I usually stop what I’m doing and capture the idea. I may flesh it out by writing the first draft of an article. I may make a broad outline. I may simply put the idea in a few sentences to be developed when it’s time.
When is it time?
It’s time when it’s time. Just as you go to sleep when your body is ready for sleep and feed it when it is hungry. We must allow our lives, our projects, our tasks, our decisions to unfold according to nature. To the aligned timing. To the moment of choice.
It opens up our days, this not choosing. Allowing life to unfold opens up our days….
To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:
