Close your eyes and awareness naturally flows inward and to the other senses. Our daylong retreat on Saturday explored what it means to "be" with nature as a backdrop.
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Much of our day was on a knoll over the Potomac River at River Bend Park. Though it was in the high 80's, every small breeze added to the cocktail of sensations: bird songs, the rush of the river over rocks, the rich humid air, the occasional plane overhead and the irregular drumbeat of Piliated woodpeckers working over dead trees nearby.
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Meditation in nature provides so many doorways to paying attention. One technique is to narrow your awareness to one square foot of forest floor and to notice all the details ... from the diversity of plant life to the movement of bugs.
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A more expansive meditation is to cloud gaze and feel the space in which everything forms, changes and disappears.
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Meditating in nature in a group provides a rich sense of camraderie, a sense of 'being alone together.' The photo above is from a trust walk. One partner is blindfolded, doing walking meditation with the senses open. The other partner is providing caring support. It's a wonderful dance of vulnerability, openess and receiving.
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I'm inspired to do more of these retreats. Stay tuned if you'd like to join in the future. We end at 3:30, providing you time and space to practice the meditation technique, put so eloquently by friend and teacher Eric Kolvig, 'to wander like a happy dog.'