The Bridge ~ Reminder #52 Beauty

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The Bridge ~ Reminder #52

Beauty

If you're driving down the road and you see only beautiful flowers; and your

neighbor is driving down the same road and sees only weeds, who is right? What

you are tuned into, that's what you create for yourself.

It's interesting how some of us are so readily inclined to see the dark side of

things, even when we are surrounded by extraordinary beauty. We complain out of

habit, thinking, often unconsciously, that we'll receive some nice reward for

all our grumbling. Unfortunately, we may get our treat, but we will also have to

live out the results of our complaining, and thus miss out on some of the

greatest gifts Mother Earth has to offer. For, it's when we hold our attention

on her beauty, that something special is called up within us; something that

instinctively makes us want to take good care of the Earth. From that point on,

we clearly see where our greatest rewards are coming from.

They come from taking care of that which is taking care of us.

We go camping a lot and have since we were little children. Our parents used to

pack up the station wagon on Friday evenings and drive my brothers and sisters

and me out to the woods. Our favorite place was about 20 miles from town in a

grove of trees that bordered a beautiful oblong lake. There weren't many people

camping around us back then, but now, since it is so lovely, it's packed all

weekend long. In the old days, we used to hunt in the nearby woods. We didn't

see how special it was, so we'd kill all kinds of animals, chop the trees and

bushes indiscriminately, dump stuff in the water, and leave a big mess behind

when we went home. It didn't matter to us back then.

Somewhere along the line, though, we made a conscious intention to remember just

how sacred it was to be out in Nature. I don't remember exactly how it came

about, but, over time, we gained an appreciation for the lake and the forest

that we didn't have before. We slowed our pace down and began to approach our

time in Nature more lightly, more gently. We started cleaning up after ourselves

so you couldn't tell we'd been there. And we stopped killing the animals, and

if, by accident, we harmed an animal or a plant, we did like the Native

Americans, and we thanked it for its gift to us.

That's when we noticed the change. It started to feel better out by the lake.

Animals who used to run and hide when we were around began coming right up to

us. Any firewood that we needed was always nearby. And, beyond all of that, a

feeling of peace is there now that wasn't there before. Even though we have a

lot more activity around us, our little campsite is so peaceful that other

campers always stop by and remark about it.

All said and done, we have a much better time out by the lake now that we take

care of it, instead of harming it. And sometimes late at night, when I lay in my

sleeping bag and look up at the stars, I feel so good I never want to leave.

From The Code: Intentions in Action

My Intention for today is:

I Intend that I am taking good care of Mother Earth