You
Be You
“Be
an egg. Be a mockingbird. Be a weed.”
Margaret
Renkl (Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss)
In this
beautiful little book of stories and essays, Margaret Renkl writes about her
relationship to the natural world and how it saves her in times of strife.
My friend, Anna, sent me an excerpt from it that includes the quote above, and
reading it was like discovering myself inside the skin of another human being. She
writes of watering the “mostly cultivated weeds” in her butterfly garden and
watching the birds—mockingbirds, hawks, and bluebirds. As I told Anna, I’ve
been a weed all my life—and not a cultivated one either.
I don’t
know anything better than sitting in the shade and watching a summer breeze
move the branches of trees. Fine choreography set to the music of the birds. We
don’t have exotic birds where I live—just ordinary robins, mockingbirds,
cardinals. The towhees that nest in my backyard have a trill that makes my heart
beat faster. The natural world is right here, all around us and free of charge.
It is our home, made to order for human habitation, and filled with sounds and
scents and vibrations tailored to connect directly with our souls. It will
soothe us if we let it.
Sitting
or walking in nature is not a magical panacea, but a physiological one. If you
are out of the traffic zones far enough to hear the life around you, your
brainwaves will entrain with the rhythms of the elements. Sounds such as
cicadas humming, crickets strumming, tree frogs singing will wind you down to
Alpha-Theta waves in moments. Those reduce anxiety, alleviate stress, support
healing, and reduce mental fatigue.
In this
time of pandemic anxiety, we all need an escape hatch from time to time. Rather
than using substances or food or alcohol, try increasing your time and contact
with the natural world. Allow yourself to sink into it with all your senses. “Be
and egg. Be a mockingbird. Be a weed.” Or just be you and soak it in.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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