A Sense of Belonging
When you see pictures of or visit beautiful ocean views you feel the awesome majesty of the oceans, which brings you peace and calmness with each tide.When you dive into the ocean, deeper and deeper and explore the depths you are struck by the immense diversity of the corals, algae, rocks, fish, crustaceans and the sizes and shapes of all these creatures big and small. What captures my attention is the behaviors of all these numerous life forms and their usual patterns of work. Wake up, find food, find shelter, find a mate, reproduce and start the process over again each day till they die. How similar is this to what more complex creatures of the animal kingdom on land do? Be they animals or humans we are all locked in this pattern in some fashion or the other, albeit lives of the intelligent mammals namely humans, is lot more involved on a day to day basis but thats our perspective. It is still encoded into our DNA to perform in this way. We know little of the actual lives of the members of the animal kingdom. How do we know what complex societal structures they develop and form on land, air and sea? How do we know what they feel, think, speak ? We believe that we are the dominant species of life, but little do we realize that we are part of something bigger. A delicate balance of life, energy and consciousness.
When we sit and watch an early morning sunrise or an evening sunset, we are always humbled by the amazing smattering of painting of nature. The brilliance of colors and the vivid definition of imagery that we can do little but pause and observe. The fiery light of the sunrise burns within us, energizing us, bringing with it new dreams and hopes for the day. This same light in the form of sunset at the end of the day brings us a solemn sense of stillness as our troubles and worries melt away into the evening darkness.
When we look above at the night sky, we are enthralled by all the little dots of light, and as they twinkle and look back at us, we imagine our place in the universe and what other life forms if any exist and what do would they look like ? We try to count the innumerable stars and have expensive space exploration projects to seek out new life and understand the cosmos, yet how much do we understand about ourselves? Our minds are great as they reach outward to the heavens, laterally to the sun’s rise and set, and below to the oceans depths, but when does it stop, and when do we look inward to the spirit and consciousness and listen to what it is saying.
Such a great impact that nature has on us, yet when do we really pause to appreciate it? Natures medicinal mental healing. Do we capture the moment to be still and become human “being”, and stop human “doing”? This is a fine line that we must all draw in the sands of life and understand when to cross it, or at least realize when we have crossed it. Nature will keep doing what it has to do also in pattern, following its own laws, governed by its own rules, tempered by time, shaped by space. We are also part and parcel of nature, why do we resist this realization. When did we start to think that we were above it all and destruction of nature was acceptable in the name of progress of humanity? Is not natures’ demise our own as well?
I bring up this food for thought, as which ever direction we look we are really looking for a sense of belonging. Trying to understand our origins. Be they from the ocean floor amongst the spectacular diversity of corals and fish that have almost every imaginable and unimaginable shape,size, and color, or from the elements sent from the plethora of stars, planets and suns that dominate the vast expanse of space. We connect to the divinity within when we look at the sunrise or sunset as we have no choice but to slow down, pause, reflect, and be still, since none of us can speed up this cyclical event. Nature’s “time out” if you will, for us to stop, and reach out to the Creator and be thankful for the present moment. Thankful that in this moment we can just be, not afraid, but free.
We belong to something so much more, a web of energy and consciousness, fused in these impermanent bodies with love, on a journey to understand purpose and belonging. The answer is all around us if we dare to believe and open our eyes and minds to the infinite possibilities. Will you take the risk of stepping out of your DNA and seeing what miracles await you? Happy hunting!!
Leave a Reply