Jesus was always drawing attention to nature...because he saw a power for restoration and healing in it that humans have lost touch with.
“Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.”
There is something about a beautiful vista with shimmering water and trees and tall grass blowing in the wind that puts our hearts into a state of repose, our obsessive thoughts and racing mind begin to slow and the opportunity arises to ponder life in a deeper more meaningful way. Perspective is everything. And the truth is, much of what occupies us is in the grand scheme of things is meaningless and mundane. No food for a hungry soul there. And so we grow depleted in body, mind and soul so often not even aware that we are starving and exhausted.
What we really need
We crave orderly beauty which sends our souls the welcome message that all is right with God's world and that something very good and caring and healing exists here if we will just notice. Our forefathers knew that this could be the entrance to healing for our souls. When our bodies and our hearts and our minds and emotions need healing so do our souls, we are whole people and when we are wounded we are wounded on many levels.
...Why when we are over worked and exhausted do we crave the peace of the light on the ocean?
...Why when we are dispondent and nothing seems to help can beautiful music elevate us to a place of renewed hope and a sense of majesty?
...Why must we purge our homes of clutter and disorder when we are buried by mental and emotional “clutter”?
Why? Because our outward experience informs our inward experience. Outward clutter is almost too much to bear up under when there is inward “clutter” as well. It leaves no way of escape and the emotional pain intensifies. If my internal world is filled with negativity and hopeless thoughts through out the day how much will I respond with joy to the sight of the perfect painting or the first rose of the the season. Oh yah, that's right there is another reality I havn't been focusing on. Hope, rest, medicine for the soul. What do I gravitate towards when I'm sad, depressed, anxious? If I have trained myself to silence the inner voice of reason I may be medicating emotional pain with noise, business, spending, working or endless talking in an attempt to run faster and faster away form the pain. When I am running or working or compulsively talking or doing I don't feel the pain, at least consciously for the moment. As long as I do more and more of these things there is a temporary although very costly relief. Fertile ground for our cultures epidemic of almost endless addictions. But it's all very short sighted, something always gives maybe our health, our relationships or our ability to cope itself.
All of life goes in cycles
We're born we grow, we get strong, produce for awhile and rest. We have times of sickness where we must go dormant for awhile and replenish, we rise, we work again, we celebrate, we reproduce and we die. Daily we rise, work, play and sleep every twenty four hours. There are the same weeks, months and years always. The earth is comforting in that it has four seasons a year every year. Birds and whales and animals of all kinds migrate reproduce and then die. All of creation supports these cycles including our own internal constitutions. Our bodies respond to these cycles because we are part of a whole. Cycles within cycles within cycles. It is the way of the world. When we attempt to impose an unnatural standard on ourselves we inevitably become imbalanced in body, mind and soul. We really can't buck the system without paying a heavy price.
When we deviate from the natural order
What happens when we unnaturally begin to violate the natural order that keeps us mentally, emotionally, and phisically running smoothly? If we are not acknowledging who we are as whole beings who need rest and beauty and healing and restoration on a regular basis we compromise our whole self from which a sense of well being is derived.
Imbalance between work and rest will exhaust us over time. Our ability to work efficiently, joyfully and optimally is compromised. Mental, emotional and spiritual energy is diverted to make up for a sense of internal pain, emptiness, despondency, fear, panic, worry or hopelessness. Maybe our very sense of worth is effected. Why bother I'm no good. In response we often try harder exhausting ourselves further and we are now in a downward spiral. To a great extent our culture supports an unnatural lifestyle and even rewards it. It has become difficult for us to see the signs our forefathers took for granted. Why? In part because they were closer to nature, their lives conformed more naturally to the cycles of life. They didn't have artificial light, artificial mood enhances, artificial expectations that someone will fix it if it's broken. They were realistic in their view of their place in the grand scheme of things.Their survival depended on it. As it turns out ours does too.
When they experienced loss they openly grieved for as long as it took to be restored. Others grieved with them breaking down the walls of isolation helping them to get through. It did get them through. In contrast, in our culture unresolved or complicated grief is more common then not. We are largely removed from the process of death (the professionals can deal with that) because it is time consuming and uncomfortable. We've come to expect comfort at all times or something is terribly wrong (I'm not supposed to feel pain). The hard reality of death has no place in our utopian world. Perhaps we have no real support system to grieve with us and it's too terrifying to face it alone. In our culture family, community and support system bonds are fracture all over the place. Maybe if we just keep moving and act like everything is allright it won't be so bad. We drown out our true condition with noise, fast pace and business of life and we pay a tremendous price. We lose ourselves, we run faster in an attempt to convince ourselves that death really is not part of life. It's an unnatural intrusion to be run away from and in the process rob ourselves of what we need most, healing, time to ponder, to draw close to nature and observe the timeless and restorative cycles of birth, life and death. When nothing else makes sense the world still goes on as it always did. We are programmed to find comfort in this. If we will.
If we observe there is beauty and order and comfort in the tiniest ladybug to the great power of Niagara falls awe inspiring and healing to contemplate. All of the beauty and majesty of the earth is telling us to slow down, take notice, Stop worrying
“Consider how the lilies grow, they do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all of his splendor was dressed like one of these.”
When we look at our grand creation we gain a sense of reality and perspective that our minds need to be made right again, to accept, to go on. When we are lost in the ceaseless noise, business and negativity of our own minds we lose our way and drown out the hearts cry for what it really needs; to slow down, observe, acknowledge what's real and to seek healing and beauty in God's nature where there is truth and order and restoration for our souls.
My name is Cathy Roys I am an MFT practicing in San Diego Ca. if you would like to speak further with me about this or any other therapeutic issue please contact me at 619 518-1323 or via email at Cathy@CathyRoysTherapy.com or visit my website at CathyRoysTherapy.com for more information about me and my services
I am a Marriage and Family Therapist in San Diego, Ca. and I specialize in Couples counseling, Individual issues especially those areound the areas of codependency, emotional developmental issues such as boundary development, acoa, dep. and anxiety with adults and older teens. I am also professor of Group Counseling at the graduate school I attended and adore working with students.