Photos from a hike on March 20
Photos from a hike March 27
We are a family of nature lovers, and we love living life at the pace of nature. Mother Nature provides us with a slow, simple rhythm, and it is that rhythm which has always helped guide our year. From our early years of dating, to our now almost 20 years of marriage, Justin and I have always enjoyed our time in nature, and slowly over the years have become more entwined and rooted in her rhythm. While pregnant with Reece, I felt a pull to connect more deeply to nature, to the Mother of this earth, and found myself many times in the woods, or by the water, letting the sounds of nature sooth me and the little one growing inside me. After we welcomed Reece, the pull I felt in pregnancy was stronger, and I turned to the woods...to nature, to sooth both myself and Reece, and to tune into a deeper part of myself. During those early mothering years nature reminded me to move slowly, to look for the beauty around me, and to take time to connect to something bigger than me. In essence, to be mindful.
It was a powerful lesson in those early years, when around me the world was moving at a dizzying pace, trying to entice me into more of this and more of that. But Mother Nature had my back, she was a constant reminder to stay the course, to stick to my path, and be true to who I was. I have never forgotten those little reminders, and hold them close, even today.
As Mother Nature shifts from one season to the next, I feel the deep need to ground myself in her presence, to take in all she has to offer, and to connect with it all, through my senses. Whether we are moving from spring to summer, summer to fall, fall to winter or winter to spring, as we are now, I find my senses heightened, tuning into the changes, feeling the shift deep inside. On our last few hikes I have found myself in a space of full and deep gratitude for the simple pleasure of time in the woods, and I have noticed with every part of my being the shift we are experiencing. The smell of the earth waking from its winter nap, the electrifying sound of the male red winged blackbirds filling the woods, and sending the most amazing tingle through my entire being, the buds swelling on bare branches, the trumpeter and mute swans stopping over on our waterways on their travels further north, the mud squishing underfoot, the sighting of our first robin flitting through the trees, the warmth of the sun on my face, and so much more.
The earth is alive right now, with hope, and so much magic, and every day it calls to me, in a gentle whisper to come, come and feel the magic. And every day I give myself the time and space to listen to her call, to accept the invitation, and to live at her pace.