The natural world provides us with many resources, both tangible and spiritual, but it also provides us with a living example of what is healthy and beneficial. Nature can be a valuable teacher, if we allow ourselves to heed her lessons and embrace her example.
Everything of the earth has its own natural rhythm. Plants, animals, trees, water … all dependent on other natural forces, yet each moving at its own pace. Barring human disruption, nature is never out of sync with itself.
Have you ever watched a hummingbird? Their wings flap so quickly that they are barely visible, and they flit from place to place with brief, hovering pauses in between their motion. Here – there – over there – – “Rushing” is their natural pace. Hummingbirds are extremely beautiful, but if you watch them long enough you can almost begin to feel exhausted on their behalf. And yet it is a rhythm on which they thrive.
Sometimes the pace of my human life becomes exhausting. My schedule is packed and my to-do list runs off the page, as I try to be all things to all people. I am not a hummingbird. My natural pace is not “fast forward”, and it does me well to check in with myself periodically and remind myself of that.
As human beings, we often create circumstances for ourselves that cause us to fall out of sync with our own natural rhythm. If we don’t stop to check in once in a while, this disruption of rhythm can adversely affect our health. It is essential for us to pause and measure whether we are running at a pace that is healthy for us. And if we aren’t, to take a cue from nature and make some changes.
As you go through life today, are you honoring your own natural pace?
~ Christiana
The Words of Wisdom? is a publication of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Gwinnett.
