The Magic & Miracles of Nature

By Catriona MacGregor

"When you walk across the fields with your mind pure and holy, then from all the stones, and all the growing things, and all animals, the sparks of their soul come out and cling to you, and then they purified and become a holy fire in you."
     ---Ancient Hasidic Prayer

Did you know that there is an eternal flowing source of joy that exists near us at every moment? Even in the darkest hours of the night, when your heart feels empty and alone, it flows on, awaiting your arrival, calling your heart to be filled with humble gratitude and your mind to be filled with sweet thoughts like nectar.

Think of the exhilaration you experience watching the powerful and rhythmic flow of the sea. Recall the freedom you sense as a bird soars in flight. Remember the joy you feel when the first colorful flowers appear in your garden, after a long winter. Simple pleasures, perhaps, and short lived? Not so. Nature can be a force for the good in our lives; and these simple pleasures can be expanded to transform your life into one of meaning and beauty. Mystics, naturalists and healers from around the world and across the centuries recognize this truth. Nature is a place of magic and miracles. A place where our souls can be renewed and our bodies revived.

I remember just a moment in time, when my heart opened and shone as bright as the golden harvest moon. I was walking quietly and swiftly in the early morning along a narrow trail in northern California. The trail, more fit for delicate deer hooves than human feet because of its slenderness, wound along the southern side of a steep foothill of Mount Tamalpais. Just three hundred feet below me was a narrow valley and within the Valley a softly singing stream. The spring morning air felt cool on my skin and the sun was just beginning to rise. In the distance - a thin veil of fog was slowly lifting away from the tips of the surrounding hillsides pulling back to the west and the Pacific Ocean beyond.

In spite of the surrounding beauty and the serenity of the trail, for the past few minutes, my thoughts were far away and of the past. I was having a "flashback," recalling a time of unhappiness clouding my present experience. How is it that our bodies can inhabit a place of beauty and safety – and yet our thoughts and minds – take us to a place we honestly do not want to go? Blotting out from our consciousness an experience of joy – like an ominous dark cloud covering the powerful sun.

According to recent studies on stress, Americans are now more stressed and joyless than ever before. Did you know that, according to national surveys, half of all deaths in the U.S. between the ages of 1 and 65 results from stress? How could this be? Stress is the starting point for most illnesses like heart attacks, high blood pressure, cancer and even depression. While we have our share of real stressful experiences, we mainly suffer terribly from "in the mind" stress.

On the northern incline of the trail, in the sheltered shade of live Oak and California Bay Trees, the most exquisite wild white lilies sprang from the ground like beacons of hope. Narrow beams of soft, golden light illuminated one hundred of these delicate flowers. Each delicate flower had six white petals. Light rays from the rising sun shone shyly between the branches and the flowers with an angelic quality.

Elevated in that shimmering moment –every cell of my body was infused with happiness. The sacredness of the place brought me fully into a moment of oneness with all of creation; a moment that seemed to span an eternity of time and space.

When that magical moment had passed - I could then hear the delicate singing of the small stream below and the sweet morning songs of the birds. At peace and filled with wonder my body felt lighter and immeasurably freer. Lifted now well beyond my previously limited thinking, I whispered thanks to the Creator for this gift. Even simply writing about this experience now fills me once again with great joy.

Just go outside and lie in the grass looking up at the trees and the sky. Take the time to walk beyond the path, over to the flowers, to see if they are fragrant. Look deep inside their petals to see the subtle shadings of color. Do not fool yourself that these acts are not as important, in fact more so, than spending tedious long hours working. You are a different person if you are filled with the warm rays of the sun, the clarity of the blue sky, the freedom of a soaring hawk. Let these things grow inside of you and from this your soul will be richer and fuller than it will ever be from a thousand promotions and titles. My hope for you dear reader, is that you can fill your life with these moments of great joy and from that joy your heart opens to a greater appreciation and honoring of nature. And a realization that magic and miracles are right in your own backyard.