Posts tagged ‘Natural Contemplation’

January 9th, 2012

Philip Carr-Gomm’s Wild Wisdom Meditations with Earth, Water, Air & Fire Review

If I could hire Philip Carr-Gomm to read me bedtime stories to lull me to sleep, I would.  Philip Carr-Gomm’s has that kind of voice—a voice that has wisdom built-in and has an amazing ability to comfort. Listening to his voice makes me think about the merits of becoming a Druid—that’s how powerful his voice is for me (however, there is no religious persuasion in the meditations).

Based on the five elements, each meditation gently guides you to connect with Mother Nature’s relaxing energies with simple breath awareness and nature-based visualizations. I usually don’t like guided visualization exercises, the descriptions are often too new agey or too complicated, but Philip Carr-Gomm keeps it simple with basic descriptions so you can focus more on the breath and sensations in the body, with his most “complex” visualization occurring in the Fire meditation. My favourite meditation is the one that combines all the elements. It reminds me of yoga nidra because it starts with the breath and scanning of the body to send you to a deep, relaxed state—indeed, sometimes it’s too relaxing and I have to be careful not to fall asleep.

At around 20 minutes each in length, they are easy to fit in you day. And when it’s just too cold or you otherwise can’t get outside, these meditations will help you to connect with nature and find your centre. Once you are familiar with the exercises, leave the technology behind and go find a real oak tree to lie under. Now if only I could find a fluffy cloud to carry me away to a secluded mountain top.

Purchase from CD Baby.

(Random photos from the “archives.” The Blue Jay picture was taken after the snow picture.

CategoryMeditation, Natural Contemplation | Comment4 Comments »

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September 8th, 2011

Hidden Beauties: Secret Waterfall and Bluebead Lilies

Sometimes a short walk will lead you to a hidden beauty, known only to the lucky few who have a home away from home behind the iron gates. I am not one of those “lucky” few, but with an outdated guidebook I was able find their secret! What I’m not showing you is the house that is built nearby (obviously fairly new), but if you look closely in the first picture you can see the small tip of a deck built on top of a flat rock overlooking the falls. I pretended it didn’t exist.

I plan to go back in the fall to explore more of the falls and follow the river. When I finally get a bike, I think this will be one of my destination goals.

Do faeries exist? I present Exhibit A, attesting to the fact that they are indeed, real. Turns out the Victorians where correct in their assumption that faeries sometimes live near waterfalls . . . or maybe it’s just evidence that dragonflies peruse the area.

Bluebead Lily

Bluebead Lily is a native, perennial plant commonly found on Nova Scotia’s shaded forest floor.  The berries are inedible and mildly toxic. The leaves are edible, but only when very young (a few inches tall).  I have never tried one so I can’t say anything about the taste. However, since they are slow to spread and sensitive to grazing white-tailed deer, it is perhaps best to leave this plant alone. The plant reproduces by seed or rhizomes. “Flowering in May and June, it takes over a dozen years for a clone to establish and produce its first flower, 2 years of which are dedicated solely to germination. The rhizome starts to mold after approximatively 15 years, but a colony often covers several hundred m². Few specimens establish new colonies.” (source) Needless to say, the plant is not easily transplanted, but you shouldn’t be stealing wild plants anyway, it’s not nice to mother nature and it’s illegal.

CategoryNatural Contemplation, Nova Scotia, Uncategorized, Wildflowers | Comment6 Comments »

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September 2nd, 2011

Just Me and My Walking Stick

I love packing my bag and grabbing my walking stick on the way out the door to my special place a short three minute drive away (I need a bike) to the lake. As I pull in I pray that there are no other cars, and often there are not. The other day there were three cars park in the boat launching part. But the park is large so I set off down the trail with high hopes that I wouldn’t run into anyone. After I walked through a few spider webs, I took it as a good sign that the other visitors were not fellow hikers, but canoers who could be anywhere on this great lake (and not likely to be at “my spot”).

A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.

- Walden, Henry David Thoreau

On the way to my spot I had the good fortune of seeing two bald eagles leave their roost as I rounded the corner. I watched them fly majestically in circles before moving on. Of course I had forgotten my binoculars and camera. On the way to my spot I did see some blue canoes pulled up on another shore far off in the distance, but when I finally got to my spot, they remained hidden.  Perfect. I come by myself because others get bored or need to talk. Although I sometimes wish I had a wise old dog at my side.

There I remained, swam for a bit, but lay mostly idle, just taking it all in. I like to close my eyes, withdrawing the senses, for a few moments of time, and then when I open my eyes again everything seems richer, more saturated—brand-spanking new.

Consider what the perpetual admonition of Nature to us is, the world is new, untried. Do not believe in the past. I give you the universe new and unhandled every hour. You think in your idle hours that there is literature, history, science behind you so accumulated as to exhaust thought and prescribe your own future. In your sane hour you shall see that not a line has yet been written; that for all the poetry that is in the world your first sensation on entering a wood or standing on the shore of a lake has not been chauted yet. It remains for you, so does all thought, all object, all life remain unwritten still.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

When I come out to these truly quiet places (no traffic sounds) I find stillness happens quite naturally and effortlessly. I don’t even realize it is happening. Too bad I can’t say the same for when I intentionally sit on my cushion at home.

To get back I walked the loop and looked at a variety of bright and interesting fungi, from neon yellow and red, to black and white. They looked like colourful worms standing up in choirs. I’ve also committed to memory images of a few berry producing plants and shrubs that I will someday find out what they are. By not having my camera with me, I also missed out on an opportunity to catch Indian Pipe still in bloom. There are so many wonders, and you don’t have to travel far to see them.

When I got back to the car, two men were pulling out a row boat, but the original three cars were gone! Well then, who did those canoes belong, too? Tis is a mystery!

CategoryMeditation, Natural Contemplation, Quotes, Solitude, Trails | Comment3 Comments »

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