Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott.
You join me as dawn is breaking up on Dartmoor.
It's a cool day with low cloud and it's a beautiful time of day,
The quiet stillness where darkness gives way to the greyness of dawn and eventually dawn gives way to daylight.
It's a magical time of day.
If you've ever walked at this time of day you will know how magical it is and if you haven't then do,
Do go somewhere where the artificial lights are low so you can actually witness the beauty of dawn as you walk through the landscape.
It's truly extraordinary and I'm here reflecting today on the land and being present to the land and with the land.
It's as though the land around me,
This landscape on Dartmoor has its own spirit,
It has its own characteristic personality,
Energy,
Life force and as I walk through this landscape I am allowing myself to settle and be present and inviting connection with the landscape.
What is the land trying to communicate to me?
Last night I had a very settled night's sleep.
I'd gone to bed reflecting on the of connection with the land and I'd been reflecting quite deeply in a gently curious way and my sleep was very settled and very rich and I had many dreams which I can't remember now but I remember waking up in between the dreams and feeling a sense of something at a deep level within me being understood.
I can't even explain it as though after all this time and I have been so reflective on the landscape over the last 18 months,
Curious about nature,
Inviting connection,
So it feels like after all this time at some level beyond my level of intellect I am starting to become aware at a deeper level of this connection and my request to you today is to look within yourself for that connection with the land,
For that connection with nature.
I'll tell you where it doesn't come from.
It doesn't come from the busyness of everyday life.
It doesn't come from the gluttony of consumerism.
It doesn't come from wishing for more,
For wanting things to be different.
It comes from a deep settling and from that space of settledness,
That sense of spaciousness,
There is an opening.
There is an opening of connection.
You see I am not an individual walking on the landscape.
I am not someone coming out into nature.
I am nature.
I am as much of this landscape as the trees that are dotted on the hillside and the birds that I can hear in the trees this morning.
I am the landscape.
I am nature.
I am part of this beautiful life force energy and so are you and it is our belief that we are separate from it that causes the huge distress of loneliness and separation and bewilderment in this world.
Nature is like a parent that is waiting for us to return.
My request to you is look within yourself.
Feel that call back.
She is waiting for you to return so she can enfold you back into her arms again and you can know that you will never ever be separate in this world.
You and me and everyone you come across are all part of this energetic life force and as your mind settles and you feel that presence within you,
You will never be alone.
