I flirt with mine regularly. When is the last time that “you” teased your sensory-scapes?
By that, I mean how aware are you of a burning smell, a sharp prick on the skin, a loud noise, an unpleasant taste, or a sudden change of light?
When I connect and explore Nature and its flavorful wonders, I find my gift of Smell, Auditory awareness, Visual bounties, the fluttery Touch, titillated to the point that the exhilaration and euphoria, strangely serve to slow me down, and I often find myself restful, and pausing in the creation of these new immersive spaces.
I took a mindful and purposeful Hike in the UNESCO Biosphere Protection site of Seoraksan National Park, Korea on my visit this month, and it’s 30 incredible jagged ridgeline of peaks that look like the back of a stegosaurus-type dinosaur (especially the Ulsanbawi Rock), clear gurgling mountain streams, vibrant flora, and fauna…took my breath away.
The 6 km Hike to Geumganggul Cave, aroused some intimate connections and evoked strange dialogues in my head, that I invite you to tap into. There’s imagery here, metaphor maybe?
In that Silence, with no others around for a few hundred meters…my soul soared in freedom. I turned to look up at the sky and thought, “Oh, look how the Juniper and hawthorn fir tree leaves form a canopy to play in shine and shade in… and gosh…is that a Siberian flying squirrel that swished in front of my eyes for a minuscule ethereal second?”
I looked at the huge Boulders around me, “I wonder if they are a playground for bugs, or perhaps hibernation grounds for smaller animals”!
A gentle breeze picked up. At that moment, a withered leaf whirled freely in every way and came to rest on my shoulder as if finding a haven in which to nest.
I inhaled deep. “Ah…I love how the fresh summer air is tickling my olfactory senses with the natural scents it carries from trees and blooming plants” (Note: I actually smiled to myself, feeling playful about using the mouthful “olfactory” vs a simpler version of sense of smell”)
As I paused and reached out to rub my cheek against the Fir tree’s bark, dripped with lichen, I thought, “How strange that under the aged skin – slashed by Nature’s knife…. I can almost feel the Veins violently pulsing”. Nostalgia struck as I imagined it to be the cheek of my long-gone grandma.
The sight of that gurgling stream, a visual delight lured me to dip my feet into its icy froth, and it whispered to me “This is where Bliss lives – where have you been all these years”!
I turned my face to the sudden movement in the bushes to meet the eyes of a rare Korean musk deer, the sense of enchantment that rose in my heart tapped into the hidden secrets that the forest had to bear.
In that moment of my highest spiritual connection with the Universe, I knew there will never be any more perfection in heaven or hell than there is now!
An Invitation to your Soul….
Remember your inextricable ties with Mother Earth.
Go undisguised and naked, and allow the vibrant and vivid sounds, smells, textures, of the Forest to embrace you…and then wait for the magic to unfold! Perhaps, if you look hard, you will re-find your inner self, the Soul, the very source of your being?
