Spiritual Awakening in a busy world
When we are born in a city and grow up surrounded by concrete buildings, we sometimes lose touch with nature and our family of origin. We think it is normal to rush and run our life spending hours inside our virtual world of social media, computer programs, emails, texting, browsing and games. We rarely go to see nature and spend time just breathing in smells and sounds of natural surroundings. Why?
Because we get lazy. We sit in our offices and homes and get comfortable. That’s what happened to me when I lost touch with myself and nature. I was born in a city full of concrete and going to nature was something left for a weekend and when my weekends became full of travelling plans for my work and family there was almost no place for nature. Sad but true.
I woke up one day and realised that I could spend the whole day and probably the whole week inside a house or an office or inside a car without getting out there in nature to breath fresh air and walk. Just walk. It’s not difficult, really. I used to walk with my parents when I was small but now…I just work. I look after my kids. I have fun with other people in other places and bars and restaurants and houses. I only go to see nature on holidays. And when I say ‘see’ I mean it. It is a rather awkward encounter. I observe rather that be in it or with it. I look at it and admire as I admire a piece of music that I have not heard for a long time. A rare meal that I happened to eat that moment. It’s kind of an outside perspective and feel sad about it.
I admit it, although I enjoyed walking in nature, I also found it boring. I could do so many more things at the same time! It was boring to just walk and do nothing. The nature was so still, it made me feel strange as though I rushed too much. It was not giving me additional information for my busy mind, it was just there. And it made me feel wanting to see my phone again or listen to a podcast.
But one day I was awed by a big oak tree that had been there probably a few centuries but I didn’t see it. It was in my yard. I have not noticed it for a long time and there, when I finally saw it, I was amazed. How beautiful and peaceful it was. Just a tree. And it was a moment of my spiritual awakening.
From then moment onwards I started walking slowly, noticing leaves behind my feet, I noticed sounds of trees. I stopped listening to podcasts and even music when I walked. I just became a small part of nature. It was a walking meditation. I imagined trees were talking to me and I talked to them. I started attracting attention of small animals which I didn’t notice before. Little birds, insects, squirrels, cats. There were a lot of creatures around and it came to my realisation that it was all there waiting for my awakening. I finally started to enjoy myself. Spiritual awakening is a moment of appreciation of what there is for you. Right very moment.