Awakening to the Natural Beauty & Creativity of Earth: Becoming Fully Human

 Natural Beauty @ Earthwalk Ways

"On this Path we learn to drink beauty. We are quenched by the sun and the moon."

Do you know how to breathe, eat and drink beauty?
Do you know how to savor and let it infuse your insides from head to toe?
Do you know how to feel your own inner life force being fed by the radiance of the world?

If we know how to tune in (not everyone does) we discover the hidden depths within nature.  We feel a deep sense of fundamental presence in all and every part of nature.  As we become present in this domain we discover Presence reflected back.  Nature doesn’t talk, yet speaks eloquently. We are impoverished as human beings if we cannot hear.  This is the norm today.  It is as if we have lost one of our senses, like sight or hearing.  The world is still going on but our experience has been truncated.

Yet this is one limitation that we don't have to live with.   With a simple practice we can reconnect to nature’s responsiveness, incredible sensitivity and bouquet of sensory communication and communion.  To share in and participate with the beauty of the more-than-human world is a deep ecstatic experience for the human.   Everything is alive and connected and we can know and feel that directly. 

We have to enter into and become present to the sensory flows all around us and in us. When we tune into a beautiful healthy field of harmony and beauty we feel it calm the nervous system, the heart opens which widens our sensory portals  and appreciation channels.  We are filled with grace and gratitude for all of life.  

Sadly many people seldom if ever have this experience.  Yet there is a simple formula that that can give everyone access over time as any training or practice does. All it takes is an intention to keep coming back to your senses.  Do this as many times a day as you can remember; brushing your teeth, driving to work, standing in line.  A sitting practice of focusing on the sensory within us is also good.   Whenever you remember to do this you are strengthening the sensory neurons and generating new ones. 

When we attend to the sensory experience in each moment, we are not thinking.  When the constant inner dialogue is slowed down and relegated to the background, we discover a whole new world of direct perception.  No veil of words come between us and the world of natural communion that has always been there waiting for us.  When we re-discover this, some say it is the return to the Garden of Eden. 

We will get pulled back into our thoughts again, but nature’s beauty and presence is the strongest magnet I know to call us into this state of sensory now.  And as Ekhart Tolle says, every time we put a gap in the mind stream, it is cumulative.  It is a bit backwards but catchy to use Fritz Perls saying,”Lose your mind and come to your senses.” Actually by coming to our senses we subdue the mind. 

Any healthy natural place will do.  Practice noticing the sensory inputs coming to you.  Listen. Smell. Look, at first without comparison or comment and simply experience it directly just as the indescribable experience it is.  Then you might notice the feeling dimension that exists embedded within the sensory dimensions of sight, taste touch smell and hearing.   Connect with the analogical aspect of it, it seems like….or sense its edginess, or its softness.  Notice that each plant species with its particular habit of growth has a specific felt sense about it.  Maybe we experience its density or its lacy appearance, even more subtly we might sense it’s welcoming or it’s withdrawing from our presence.  How does it feel.  How do you feel in its presence.   Plants are great for this but there are many people who feel a great deal from stones and crystals and landscapes definitely speak a language of mood or atmosphere.  

If we are fully present, then the experience of Presence looking back at as from the world naturally arises.  When we learn to listen again, instead of a warehouse of resources to be used, nature becomes our intimate friend and guide, guardian, support and succor for everything that transpires in life.  I know it is the beauty of this earth that awakens the spiritual dimension of my being and calls me to live bigger than my small self.   

The beneficial effects on body and soul, are measured by our scientists and immediately noticeable in our own experience.    Our stress indicators drop and we breathe more freely.  Our spirits are lifted up because the sense of loneliness is relieved by the beauty and presence all around us.  We discover we are not alone here at all.  Everything in this world is waiting to reach and touch us.  Everything is waiting to break through our small self absorbed realities and fling us into a moment of delight or awe if we would let it.

This beauty that is all around us where ever there is natural health in the world is a source of nutrition for our bodies and our souls.  Most of us have lost connection with the sensory currents of the world, living instead in our plans and our regrets, our stories of success or failure, of struggle and pain in relationship. When all of this effort is without nourishment, we shouldn't wonder why we feel dead inside, unhappy in life, forever dis-satisfied, often addicted to substitutes for true pleasure and peace.   

This state of separated consciousness must be recognized as the illusion it is.  If we stay tuned in, we will see a new world that is bright and beautiful.  The story of the phoenix is that before it busts into flames and dies, it sings a song to the world that is so beautiful that at least once before it is gone, each person is called into the rapture of the present. 

Let this Earth Day be a call from the Earth to you her children, to come back home to your planet and to the simple ways of being in touch.  This is so simple and so important.  Go find a place to love and care about, to visit at all seasons and kinds of weather.  Make friends with a place and nurture it and see how it can nurture you.  Open your senses and let yourself be touched by life even if it is hard and painful.  

Whether what we are passing through is the final song of the phoenix or the crowning of a new birth, let’s be present and let’s praise the creativity and beauty of all that is here.  Let’s remember that within us is this same amazing and beautiful creativity, this universal creativity that has brought forth stars and planets, birdsong, and rainbow’s inside of clams.  

This is flowing within us and as we more deeply attune to the unified and ongoing presence within us and within everything, we will blossom into a creature who is a most perfect channel for the ongoing beauty and creativity of the earth,  and we will restore and come back into harmony with the earth once again. 

All of Mother Nature is calling us in these times.  This is my understanding of how we can start to respond.  Blessings, Darlene

Artisans Center of Virginia

Artisans Center of Virginia

Winter Solstice Post

I am a deep student of the Medicine Wheel of life, and Winter Solstice falls in the North of this powerful mandala.  This direction speaks of the deep stillness of earth, and a vast night sky that seems to make an endless night. The winter night sky is so present in the deciduous forests now, where the summer before the cathedral canopy of leaves gave us only peaks of sky in the breeze..   Now the branches of the bare trees seem to etch into the winter night lifting our gaze into the dark immensity.  The stars grow brighter, more present.

Each direction of the Medicine Wheel has a perspective or way of seeing.  The North is the Power of Presence to - but dis-identification with - the material world inlcuding all our roles and activities.  It is a time of deep Being accentuated by the 3 days of stasis around Solstice where even the movement of the Sun stops.  Out of this deep stillness, doing once again arises. Arising out of being, it is reconnected with source once more.  This is the Nature of Creativity, cyclical endings and new beginnings with Presence holding and molding it all. 

Solstice is the true solar New Year of our hemisphere as understood through the Medicine Wheel.  It is the moment of death, dissolution, releasing, letting go of the attachment and activity of the past cycle and subsiding into the stillness... The arising of a new impulse from this ground of being, into form, follows in its natural timing.  Below is a hymn I received that expresses this archetype of  rest and renewal.  Can I post music here?  I will try to post it and provide a link within a few days.  Words are below. 

Deep in Winter's Silent Night
The Light of the New Year is Born
And all of the Stars Shine with all of their might
To Remind us of our Home.

With Sillouetted Branches raised
Into the Vast Night Sky
Firm Trees with arms held up in Praise,
In Reverence Abide

Throughout Winter's Long Dark Night
Life is held deep in the Ground
To Center, Restore, and Renew
So New Growth be Heaven Bound

So into the Winter lets all go
With Faith and Hope and Love
To receive the Wisdom of the Night
And the Promise of the Sun

Participating in the Celebration of the Cosmos!

"The human venture depends absolutely on this quality of awe and reverence and joy in the Earth and all that lives and grows upon the Earth...In the end the universe can only be explained in terms of celebration.  It is all an exuberant expression of existence itself...We must feel that we are supported by that same power that brought the Earth into being, that power that spun the galaxies into space, that tilt the sun and brought the moon into its orbit." Thomas Barry

The deepest desire of the human I believe, is to open to the wonder of creation as fully and as continuously as possible. It is only through this direct experience, this sensory presence to the natural realm, that we can know and "feel supported by that same power that brought the Earth into being."  A simple practice of being present to nature, is a deep fulfillment.

Yet I notice how difficult staying connected to sensory experience is, so many distracting thoughts seem to lure attention away from reality and full participation in the cosmic celebration.  This celebration is apparent to the eyes of my understanding, and yet the eyes of my senses are not fully capable of be-holding the direct experience of life. So in the midst of all this radiance and allurement, as if the light is too much to take, we escape into distraction and pressure and doing.  It takes attention and intention to stop and smell the roses. The realm of self-activity has a gravity and universe bending force of its own.  It is difficult to stop....and just be for very long.

Science has shown that our bodies respond to our imaginations as completely as they respond to "real" experience.  We are in a constantly activated adrenalized state that is neither natural or healthy.  Our thoughts are constantly constructing stories of threat to who we think we are.  The old 60's saying "up tight" resonates here.  We are a hung up, wound up, and uptight more than we realize.   If we relax it is with the help of alcohol, food, sex or other forms of self-medication. We are seeking inner peace and deep fulfillment, which \cannot be found in the realm of the mind or its projections but which is revealed in nature and the ground of stillness out if which it all arises.  Nature is sensory and brings us back to our senses.

"Lose your mind and come to your senses." or more accurately  "come to your senses and lose your mind" is the invitation.    Having ADD, this was the only form of "stilling the mind" that ever worked for me.  The minute we bring awareness into the sensory realm we are not thinking.  Thoughts may arise again, but they will be more connected to presence and the moment for a moment. Try to remember to come back to your senses when ever you can.

Each time as Eckhart Tolle reminds us, we are putting a precious gap in the mind stream, and actually  inhabiting reality, self and  world. This inner stillness begins to lengthen from nano seconds to seconds then minutes.  Eventually it can become the continuous silent presence to what ever is arising, grounding us in the larger ground of being.

When we become sensory, we also become aware of our inner energy states and sensations that come from our feelings and physical body.  The resistance to "being", is largely resistance to feeling what is inside of us including physical discomfort or emotional pain.  We mostly run from the self-judgements contained in our negative interpretations of our experience.  This pain recycles itself  because it must be felt, but not through the lens of any story.  The story is not ever true and it is what causes the unbearable state of suffering for the psyche. 

The actual sensations of the emotions can be felt directly and without story.  Getting present to ourselves means facing and feeling what we find within us moment to moment.  It is just part of the internal weather pattern arising now, a tension here, butterflies there, a pressure at the throat where tears are choked back. Practice being with the inner sensations without interpretation, following them as you would follow a meandering stream, letting it take you naturally to the source of its flow; or following its release into the ocean of its destiny

 On one level that is all it takes and thankfully so...., because as simple as it is, it is not easy.  The full force of conditioning and habit, and the difficulties in life that are created from our disconnection with source, keep us frantically in the loop.  I notice that even when I recognize I am entranced, I cannot always pull myself back into reality.  The power of presence cannot penetrate the compelling momentum yet.  Practice is what it takes. Forgiveness and awareness.  Don't get discouraged.

The longing for a peace that stills the constant activation of the body by the mind is awakening in us all, we just haven't quite recognized it's source yet.  We are weary of stress but accept it as part of the cost of living.  Sooner or later it will serve by causing us to search for something more, a larger consciousness from which to experience life. While we have so much more than we ever have materially, we are more unhappy.  Life becomes a grind rather than an ecstatic creative experience and sadly we are destroying the very source of that deep ecstatic participation, looking for the next "fix."  Nature is the best "fix" I know especially if we can consume her with our senses, drink in her thirst quenching beauty and study the nature of her ways. 

The Invitation
Mother Nature is overflowing with light, love and life.  She is a loving sea of vibrant energy that envelops and interpenetrates us.  She is a supreme radiance of light and beauty.  We are a supreme sensitivity.  Can you feel her call?  Along with all the Angels, every rock and tree, every field and stream, every sunrise and star is shining with all its being; shining to attract our attention, to enlighten our hearts, to mirror our own radiance, to take us out of self-absorbed separation.

Come partake of sun and moon and stars, forest field and river.  Come learn to "eat" beauty as an act of communion; to receive Mother Nature as sacrament.  When we partake of her divinity our hearts open and we naturally align with that same radiance in us.  Our Higher-Self responds to and  is awakened by the beauty of creation.

As human beings we are mediums, deep resonance chambers for the powers of the cosmos.  Our ecstasy comes from being filled with these energies.  Once we transform the numbness, terror, guilt and grief that creates our sense of separation, we awaken to discover who and where we really are. 

 Try this practice for awhile.  Use a timer or chime to remind you to come into presence through out the day.  When you hear it,  let yourself stop in the middle of what ever you are doing.  If possible go outside and take the time to get really present. Take a few minutes, because your body will be tense and contracted; in doing mode. See if you can consciously connect to your body tension, notice your emotional state as well.  Consciously invite your body to relax inside and become aware of the breath of life breathing you, aware of the nature in that, sensation of the air flowing into your lungs, the movement of the body, the sounds of the breath.  Become aware of  your inner sensations while at the same time being aware of your outer environment. Breath in the awareness of both.  Sense the deep dimension of stillness that everything arises out of.


The mystics speak of the Glory of God.  For me that glory is palpable in the radiance all around me; in the shine of sun and moon and stars,  as well as the deep power and peace that dwells here, that we can know when we can shift into presence.  From there celebration and joy becomes the spontaneous natural expression of life itself.

Thanksgiving Hymn

The Sun is ever pouring over all.
The Moon guides our way
All receive these blessings
In fullness all respond
With praises blessing back
With praises blessing back


Full of this immense totality
Feast of Sun and Moon and Stars
Emptiness  receiving.
Gratitude, the heart of all.
With praises blessing back
With praises blessing back

Vitamin N: Mother Nature's Elixir for Body, Mind and Spirit!

Vitamin N: Mother Nature’s Elixir for Body, Mind and Spirit!

Science is just beginning to research the effects of a growing “Nature Deficit”, or insufficient time ‘being in’ the natural as opposed to man-made world.  While we eagerly embrace organic natural foods and products, we have not embraced nature experiences per se, except as a backdrop to other activities and we usually prefer to be indoors where we feel safe and comfortable.  This is increasing as our electronic inter-connectivity keeps us busy relating through our communication devices.   We are no longer intimately and sensually connected to the more than human world of nature.  

Recent neuroscience has shown this technological evolution is affecting the wiring of our brains, decreasing our attention span and affecting our decision making abilities and stress loads among other things.  A group of scientist who were studying this decided to go on a fast from their global interconnectivity by taking a 7 day float down a remote stretch of the Green River in the heart of Utah.  They reported a significant shift in their state of consciousness, experience of well-being and documented changes in brain functioning over time.  Based on this finding, they recommend a balance of activities, finding ways to include nature in our everyday life. To include a periodic fast from our machines and daily responsibilities periodically to experience the 3 day effect in nature.  Below are some interesting books on the healthy effects of nature for all levels of our being.  Google The 3 Day Effect. 

 List of Readings:    Ekhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks
                                 Nicholas Carr,  The Shallows: What the internet is doing to our brains.
                                 Richard Louv  Last Child in the Woods
                                 Richard Louv  The Nature Principle
                                 Bill Plotkin  Nature and the Human Soul
                                 Bill Plotkin:  Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature &  Psyche
                                 Brian Swimme:  The Universe is a Green Dragon                            

 I have been prescribing nature for health and well being for 25 years.  I offer a fabulous one of a kind nature get-away The Earthwalk Retreat, near Fredericksburg, VA, for your annual or bi-annual personal retreat. Discover the soul of nature and the nature of the soul.   I also lead nature expeditions in Utah.  In either venue, I will teach you a new connection to Nature and a new capability to absorb Vitamin N where ever you are.  This will inspire you to naturally bring more nature time into your life and health regimen.  Programs for individuals and small groups.

This article was written by Darlene Rollins, retreat director and owner of The Earthwalk Retreat.
For more information on her programs & faery-land retreat, please contact her at 540-752-5540
email heaven@earthwalkways.com or go to her websites  http://earthwalkways.com   http://facebook.com/earthwalk.ways  http://meetup.com/The-Art-of-Soul-Whispering

Meditation by the Fire

Meditation by the Fire


Tonight is another beautiful full moon night by the fire, and again I sit alone.  It feels as if I am the grief of the forest all around me, waiting for the people to return.  Where are the people, I hear a cry inside!  Alone I sing to the fire, the moon and the night.  It seems I feel what the forest feels. Why not?  If I am part of this earth, then my longing is an expression of the forest's longing. 

In my being I carry an ancient memory of others-being-together, sharing the stories, sharing the fire, sharing the other-worldly light of the full moon on the forest floor, crisscrossed with the shadows of the trees.  Tonight it is just me under the moon by the fire.  Together nature and I celebrate each other.  We also miss you.

This is a paradox to me. The fire still crackles merrily and the deep peace of the forest abides all around.   I see how life continues to hum, to buzz, to radiate, to crackle, to gurgle and to roar, in the midst of its sacrifice, and the continued loss of human wonder.  The forest, never losing connection with the ground of being, remains filled with possibility, with new surprises and always celebrates this moment now.  But the forest also remembers the pleasures of our ancient communion.

The truth is that few people remember that sacred life is more than human and that nature is more  than commodity, and fewer still have time for sitting by a fire. Most of us would be too embarrassed to allow ourselves to be taken over by Yansa, the spirit of the wind, as she blows through the treetops.  There are only a few who remember the years long past when we came together by the fire, and communed with nature and each other. 

Remember how it was, grounded deep in presence, listening within, listening to each other, held by the whole, speaking our truths from these depths, with great resonance and intimacy.  It was In this way we came to know our own souls and each other, and to know our oneness with the soul of nature. 

Deep inside we all long to return to an ecstatic participation and a simple connection.  Coming together around a fire under the full moon is a simple spell for synergy and magic.  I await your return to the forest.  I invite you to come and remember.  I abide here with the forest.  I affirm the emptiness of the Winter.