Spring reminds us that life is a renewing force. After the desolate landscape of winter, colourful, tender leaves and new life begin to sprout.
As we move about the routine and unexpected events in our lives, it is easy to get caught up in feeling we need to take charge and do everything ourselves. We forget that in every moment, we have Nature’s ever present support. But that which we receive from Nature is beyond its abundant physical resources, such as food and shelter. Nature also provides our body/being with the energy that literally gives us life.
If we look at a tree in the forest or garden, we see how effortlessly it grows within a greater whole. A flower is the same. It rests rooted in the soil as its stem joyfully arises from the ground. At its peak, the slender stem, capped by a surrendered display of delicate petals, shows us how we too can open to the light and share our sweet fragrance with the world.
I am an apt lover of various spiritual texts, from the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga Sutras, to the Bible. One particular biblical passage comes to mind often for me, as I contemplate my own particular relationship with Nature, and being continually and lovingly held within the whole. It is a passage that has stayed with me since I was a child going to Sunday School and then, in my late twenties, worked as a lay assistant minister at the United Church of Canada. In this passage, Jesus has just shared his famous teachings from The Sermon on the Mount:
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them…
27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
28…Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,
29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself…”
As you go about your life today, remember that you are immensely supported, just as the flowers and the trees. You are lovingly held within a vast and intelligent whole, of which you are an integral part. You are never alone.
For more on how to go with the flow and flow-er into life, please enjoy my meditation Going With The Flow.
Parvati Devi is the editor-in-chief of Parvati Magazine and an internationally recognized Canadian musician, yogi and new thought leader. As a chart-topping touring musician, Parvati spearheads the Post New-Age musical genre with her independent success hit single “Yoga in the Nightclub”. She founded YEM: Yoga as Energy Medicine, a powerful yoga method that combines energy work and yoga poses. Her critically acclaimed self-help debut book “Confessions of a Former Yoga Junkie – A Revolutionary Life Makeover for the Sincere Spiritual Seeker” is currently in its third edition.
For more information on Parvati, please visit www.parvati.tv.