“Over 95% of our body is water. In order to stay healthy, you must drink good water. Water is sacred. The air is sacred. Our DNA is made from the same DNA as the tree. The tree breathes what we exhale. When the tree exhales, we need what the tree exhales. So, we have a common destiny with the tree. We are all from the Earth, and when the Earth, water, the atmosphere is corrupted, it will create it’s own reaction. Mother is reacting.” ~ Floyd Red Crow

With the hustle and bustle of everyday life, sometimes we don’t take enough time away from our busy schedules to really slow down and take in the beauty and solace that Mother Nature can provide.

When we connect with nature, it can be a spiritual experience—an experience that exists in silence and take us into the deepest rooted levels of our being.

Like a mother, nature will console us. When we choose to connect with her, she is capable of healing some of our deepest wounds.

We must, however, take the time to fully respect, appreciate and acknowledge her. Though she is not our physical mother who gave birth to us, she is our mother and she is sacred.

In our modern society, we tend to keep our schedules cram packed to the gills. While sometimes that can be okay, we also need to disconnect in order to reconnect. That means putting the phone away and turning off technology for awhile.

While technology can be a good thing, it all too often keeps us disconnected from not only ourselves but from the people who surround us—the ones with whom we live with, work with and love.

It’s important to remove these distractions from time to time so we don’t lose our connection to our loved ones, and nature itself.

The following are practices almost anyone can follow if we are willing to make the time. In setting this time apart, we hold open a sacred space for healing and spiritual connection with the earth.

Here are some simple ways to reconnect:

Take a walk. If possible, remove your shoes. Feel the air as it graces your cheeks and plays with your hair. Feel the grass, the sand or the dirt beneath your feet. This is one of my favorite ways to connect with the earth.

Rise early to take in the beauty of the morning sky giving birth to a new dawn. Watch the sun rise and brighten, spreading pastel color like a colorful blanket across the sky.

Go to a body of water or a stream and sit for awhile. Listen—the silence and the voice of nature will envelop you and fill you with peace and calm. Water creates a deepened sense of renewal, like a spring rising up within us that replenishes our thirsty soul. The Cherokee had a tradition of “going to water”. The water is sacred.

Watch the sun set. The colors of the day slowly surrendering to the darkness of the night sky. The colors spreading like a wild fire, brilliantly displayed in the sky, silent words spoken from the Creator.

Lay on a blanket beneath a sky filled with ancient stars. Look up, you must remember to look up!
Let the worries of your day drain from your being. Speak from your heart to the ones who have walked on before you. They are closer to us in spirit than we realize. Their stories are written across the night sky, their secrets twinkling in the stars, and their mystery swaying and dancing like ghosts in the display of Northern lights.

Sit beneath the moon and stars.

Put your hands in the dirt.

Plant something, grow something.

Take a drive in the country with the windows rolled down.

Dance in the rain, who cares if anyone is watching!

Build a fire outdoors and let it warm you, watch the flames dance in the breeze.

Sleep beneath the stars, your ear to the ground listening to the heart beat of Mother Earth.

Breathe deeply. Allow the air to completely fill your lungs. Look up and take in the scenery, wherever you may be. Feel the connection of nature and allow it to embrace you. After all, it is all around you…for it is in your very bones. You are made of stardust—perfect imperfection in living and breathing human form.

We are walking the path of the ancient ones. The ones who came before us who knew more than we dare to dream of. They lived simply, humbly and without the modern restraints and frustrations of our technology.

We have forgotten how to live this way. The simple way. We must honor the space between them and us, where we are presently in our modern society. This space we hold between us is sacred, and it holds the key to our future as a human race. But we must become still and listen to the old way, the deeper way. We must reconnect.

I don’t know where you are, but right now it’s fall where I live and the landscape is bursting into color with song. I can’t step outside my door without seeing and feeling a deeper connection to all that is within and without.

The trees are shedding their leaves, their “death” an age old offering. A re-birth. What once was green and full of life is now reduced to crisp color. Eventually the colors of fall will fade and the trees will be bare until the gentle kiss of the rains in the spring.

The birds have migrated to a warmer climate. The winds of change have once again shifted and are blowing from the North. The landscape is singing her haunting song of farewell. Colorfully, she bows to a new season without a single hesitation. The days become shorter and the shadows are cast sooner. We begin to tend to the fires we will keep during the winter. Our sage is dry and we have wrapped our bundles that we will add to winter’s cedar flames.

Wherever you may be, bring yourself into the present moment. Nature can truly be a beautiful and spiritual experience if only we allow ourselves to be open to the gifts that it has to offer. And best of all? These gifts are free, if we have the eyes to see and ears to hear our Earth Mother’s spiritual melody.

A dear friend shared this video with me two winters ago.

It spoke to me then and it still speaks to me so much now. Though I don’t know how to adequately put it into words, those who are spiritually connected to Mother Earth will understand. It’s a story of old and young weaved together in harmony with the earth. Please take a moment and just listen: