I discovered nature’s magic for REAL when I was five and lived on a lake near the Florida coast. Mom and Dad woke me up one night saying they had a big surprise. Dressed in their bathing suits, they herded me and my three siblings through a moonless night down to the wooden dock. After a quick change from jammies into suits, we all stood in a line at the end of the dock holding hands. “One, two, three, JUMP!” called out my Mom and off we went into the black water some 6’ below. When we hit, the inky surface erupted into a shower of stars! We shrieked and laughed and splashed in the bioluminescence, transforming the dark abyss into an entire universe with our very own hands. It was MAGIC! It was pure JOY! It was Nature at her finest.
Reclaim your playful inner child! Rejuvenate your love of life!
If you’ve witnessed the Northern Lights, a geyser spouting from deep within the earth, a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, a tadpole turning into a frog, you, too, have seen nature’s magic, and felt the joy, awe, thrill, and sense of connection this can bring to your soul. I believe we feel this joy because we are nature. Bones/Earth, Breath/Air, Fire/Energy, Blood/Water.
Living a life closely woven with the natural world allows me to experience the joy I felt that night every day, whether it’s acknowledging a golden ray of sunlight, examining a perfect snowflake or watching a bee coat its legs in pollen, deep within a bloom. This childlike expectancy of receiving joy from nature enlivens my life and feeds my open, delighted heart and feeds my soul in a world that often seems bent on draining it.
Awakening Your Joy Retreat, July 18-21 on the limestone banks of the Alsea River, another family home near the central coast in Oregon, is all about recapturing our innate, inner joy through nature play, deep grounding and enlivening the sacral chakra, the place of creativity and water in our body. Come play with us!
