Winter

This time of year, when the leaves are falling from the trees, the weather is unpredictable, when the winter birds are arriving on the lagoon and around the harbour, is a time of change. The unsettled weather may not be to everyone’s taste, but to me, the constant movement, constant change, is refreshing.

It’s been a busy year. Time has flown. The year is coming to an end, yet again. It’s easy to let time slip away, to feel like you’ve not made the most of it. It’s easy to think I’ll get to that tomorrow, the next day….

It’s easy to look down, to become so hung up in everything we have to do, that we forget the things we need to do.

To forget to get outside, to connect, to stop, listen and take notice.

This year I have started a course, a study in ecopsychology. I hope to expand my own experience, my own connection with nature, in order to share with others the healing power that the natural world can offer.

The first weekend was an introduction, to the course, to the people I will be working with for the next year, and to what to expect. A chance to put aside any hang ups I may have had, any doubts about what people will think of my beliefs, of the fact that this is what I want to study. Yes it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, yes there are those who do not believe in the healing power of nature. But to me, from a personal point of view, it is obvious.

Those days when I am stressed, tired, thinking nothing is going right, all I need to do is take myself outside, even for a few minutes, and everything seems easier, better, calmer. More real.

It’s the small things. Getting close, looking in detail. I have spent more time slowing down, looking closely, listening, stopping to touch a tree or feel the texture of fungi. Stopping to breathe, to ground and to connect.

The next weekend meeting of the course group happens at the end of November. I look forward to seeing what it will bring. Meanwhile I continue to expand my reading, my practise and my own experience. To better know myself and my natural surroundings is to better help others to do so too.