I’ve been taking many walks during this time of pandemic. Several weeks ago, I noticed how my body wanted to walk very slowly, and that my body had been resisting the pace my mind chose and asking for this slower pace on many previous walks. Finally, I listened fully. I was walking on a path near my home that is quiet and wild for the city, and allowed myself to walk at the pace that my body wanted. I experienced luxury in the pace I took, my whole body soaking up the experience. My feet felt as part of the soil and the grass. I heard and noticed the plants more vividly than usual, and the birds and insects too.

Even as my mind has wondered on subsequent walks about the amount of “exercise” I’m getting and if it’s enough with the slow pace I’ve been taking, I’ve continued my walks moving at a much slower pace than I often did in the past. Today, I breathed with the Goldenrod and was reminded by her of how loved I am by the Earth, and then I felt the beautiful presence of the Earth with us. I heard the Earth saying “slow down” in a most gentle, loving, and yet enjoining way. I experienced it as a whole-body invitation, so welcoming, yet not optional. She showed me how the mixture of all of my energies as a representation of all human beings is called, deeply called. I feel how each one of us a unique expression of divine creativity must slow down and experience ourselves as the nature that we are once again. We are called to recognize ourselves as an incomparably unique, yet not higher, lower, or more important part of a very vast community, spiral and web of life. In my awareness came that the virus is intelligent life bringing us this opportunity to slow down. The virus is not benevolent or malevolent towards us, however a force to bring natural balance. What offerings can we make, what work can we do to bring this balance in other ways?

Sometimes as I walk on this particular path that is very quiet and wild, I sing and pray, giving gratitude to the trees, plants, the Earth, and all beings. As I left the quiet of the path this evening for the sidewalk, I was delighted by the cool air. I felt goose bumps form on my skin. I walked by a stone wall, and felt the warmth of the sun that had been absorbed by the stones. I stopped and placed my hands on the wall and breathed with the warm stone. As she offered and bestowed upon me presence and peace through her warmth to my nervous system, I felt how much more I can slow down and listen, listen to the wisdom of the Earth.