Rejuvenated by Nature

Transcipt

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to The Puzzlers. We are in episode two of season three. You guys. Can you believe this? Oh, we are in season three. My name is Sue and I am going to be leading us, through a conversation today about being rejuvenated by nature. And, I'm thrilled to be here with my fellow puzzlers.

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Catherine. So glad to be here. And Val, hello. And Trixie. Happy to be here, too. Yeah, this is a great one. I want to start by saying that I am probably going to talk too much in this episode. I personally, as came out in our introductory episode with Nicole, I have always enjoyed being in nature. Hiking, camping.

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Simply sitting outside is fine with me. So choosing this topic was a natural choice for me. Yeah. Thank you. Chuckle chuckle is like, it was a natural choice. And also, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading what other people say about it, not just my own feelings and thoughts about it. And I just want to tell you everything that I read, and I want to hear everything that my fellow puzzlers have to share as well.

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So, Nicole, we're good to go for a couple of hours on this episode. Yeah, sure. Like I've tried. Listeners, please pour yourself a cup of tea and settle into your favorite chair. Regardless. Thanks to get ready for storytime. This. So I have permission. Let's go. One of the things that excites me about this conversation of exploring rejuvenation through nature is that nature itself is so accessible.

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Nature is everywhere. Trees all around us. All the time. We are never apart from nature and its intrusions of beauty. Even though some people may be more aware of those intrusions or seek them out more than others. Consider the birds we hear singing the sun, moon, stars. We look up to, the earth we walk on. Even if you live in the middle of a concrete jungle, nature is still with you.

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The air you breathe. The ants on the sidewalk. The snowflakes that cover your roof or fill your shovel, as it were. Whether we are outside in nature's territory or looking at it through a closed window or hearing it through an open window, we can't get away from nature. Personally, I love how nature can stop me in my tracks.

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And I often thank God for this gift that he's given me of noticing, seeing, and truly appreciating his creation. My closest friends would tell you that one of my core and common observations is, look at that light! Look how the sun is coming through the window. Look how the moon is is glistening on the water like I notice light streams of sunlight.

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Whatever it is, the mix of dark clouds pierced by sun rays, whatever it is, all of these things take my breath away. And while I don't think I'm alone in appreciating these things, all of the puzzlers are nodding in agreement with me right now. I may be more apt to stop mid-sentence or activity and make a comment than some people are.

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And I often insist that anyone who is with me stop what they're doing and join me in the experience, no matter. I'm the same way, no matter how small. Right? That's right. Come see this. Come see this. I want to share it. I want to marvel at it with someone else. Because as you've heard me say before, joy shared is doubled and nature brings me joy.

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So hang on a second. Before I go any further, I want you guys to jump in on this because I think we've all experienced these little moments where nature catches our attention. In pop culture now we're calling these glimmers. I just learned that term. So I'm cool. But it's that, that, that moment where nature or something, triggers happiness in us.

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For me, as I've just shared, it's often a form of light. But what is an example, my friends, of some natural glimmer. Something small but significant that you've experienced recently that made you kind of pause in the light. I had a beautiful moment this week and it really busy. Like, oh, do you share? And I do. And I love birds.

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When you talk about concrete jungles or all those kind of things, I love that birds just remind you that there's a whole other level of existence happening outside of our can kind of step into this other world. Anyway, I was just coming upstairs to get something in the middle of the day and work from home now, and all of a sudden I hear this sound and I turned to my bedroom window.

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And we've actually chosen to have grapevines grow on our house. And I had stepped up and all of a sudden there were birds filling my bedroom window and they were wood thrush, like they had a speckled belly, like they weren't a sparrow. We see lots of those. And they had just swooped in. The sound I had heard was like the wings coming in and they sat in like right at the glass and they're eating the grapes like it was a flock of wood thrush.

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See that quickly?

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They were getting migrating. So there was like 8 or 10 of them right at the window and like, literally stopped in the track. And you don't want to move because I didn't want to start alone. And I thought, well, let the phone ring. Right. So those interruptions of beauty, of nature, of wonder and connection, right, is something bigger than just this phone call.

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I'm going to have to answer whatever the next one is. Please interrupt my phone call. Yes. Love it. Love it. Mine was, recent as well. In the middle of a work day, and I purposely put a mirror in front of me. Not that I can see myself, but I can see the window behind me so that when I look out to the mirror, I see this little picture window.

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And, as I looked into the mirror, between clients, there was the color of the shimmering sunlight showering the light on the deep autumn red cut leaf Japanese maple tree. And the colors were vibrant, and they were just dancing back and forth with dappled red and orange. And then the deep, dark shadow and then back and forth.

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And then all of a sudden, the light was gone and it was like, oh, I was so sad. I was grieved. And then once again, the light, like, flooded through. And then it was all the dancing of colors and everything. It was just so beautiful. So cloud had blocked it for a moment, and the playful streak of sunlight just kept shimmering on top of those leaves.

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And it was joyful and unexpected, and it captured my attention and delighted my heart. And I just felt like God showed up in that moment with me. It was beautiful. So gorgeous. And those clouds can't last forever. That they may rhyme. Well we're recording this in November and so we just finished fall. And so I also was delighted by some fall colors this last week.

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Our street I live on a circle. And then to get there you have to go up the main road down another road. And these roads are lined with maple trees, but also linden trees and linden trees have these tiny little leaves, and, they turn bright, bright, bright yellow. And so I don't know, when you drive in, you see, just it's like gold everywhere.

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And then these little leaves are dropping, and so there's little gold flecks in the air, and then they gather at the sides because the cars sort of push them to the sides. And then if you get close, it just puffs them right up. It's like you're driving down streets of gold and literally. And if the sun's shining through, it's just like, you know, I'm like either in the Wizard of Oz or Heaven or somewhere where there's Streets of Gold.

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Yeah. So yeah, it's just really breathtaking. I love that. I find it incredible that nature can rejuvenate us through the seemingly smallest of experiences. Just every day. Saw this out my window. Saw this as I drove down the road I love I can actually picture those leaves like going off and almost like the wake of a boat kind of thing off of sides.

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But, but it turns out that science has officially recognized those glimmers. And they're not just called glimmers. They're called soft fascination. Have you guys heard this term? No, no. So science has come along and said soft fascination is a real thing, and they define it as moments that give our brains rest from constant mental engagement and reboot an exhausted brain.

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Soft fascination isn't that great of them? Well there's beautiful. Yeah, it's beautiful. I have to say that I consciously chose to do this because I was so busy. Go do do do go go go go. I realized I was missing fall, right? Like I actually wrote right about on my blog. Because, you know, in teaching, the fall semester is like everything's ramping up, you get busy, whatever.

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And to consciously go like I am missing far. So I purposely go, like, as if I'm seeing it for the very first time. Yes. To really choose to focus. Right. All The Screwtape Letters. C.S. Lewis, where he talks about how God has given us the changing seasons to rejuvenate us. Yeah. Because they they bring something familiar to us.

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And yet newly explored and discovered every time spring comes along, we all go look at the little green leaves. But that's that's exactly what this changing seasons do is familiar and fresh and I that is so that is so great. And to know what you needed is. But yeah, this soft fascination term I thought was also just tracing my words person.

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And they just such a beautiful turn of phrase for science. It's not hard. Oh like yes it's. Yeah, yeah. And they've recognized it as something official, which of course just gives everything credence. Right. But they've gone further. Of course. Because everything from pop psychology to Harvard Health, site proven health benefits, spending time in nature for the mind and body.

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Far beyond a seemingly simple mood lift. And this probably won't surprise you, but I'm going to go through I'm going to geek out with science for a minute. So it's not just that mental engagement, that mental refresh, but spending time in nature enhances our mindfulness and allows us to be present simply by noticing details around us.

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So just being in the moment and taking the time to notice the leaves out your window, or the leaves on the road, or the birds right at your window, just taking that moment does change. Our our mindfulness, even when we return to the task that we approach because we're sensory present. Right? Yes. Sensory present. Yeah. Yup. It promotes a sense of calm and safety.

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Now, calm I could get. But the safety thing, really fascinated me. And again, it has to do with presence I am here. I am present. The world around me is okay, even if my mind is spinning or work is crazy. This is real. It's reality because fear and anxiety are in the future. And often when we're feeling depressed or regret or in the past, and when we're looking at what is right now or in the right now.

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Right. Right. So it gives us all of that. It reduces stress hormones like cortisol. It slows our heart rate and blood pressure. I have felt that happen. And it boosts our immune system, our cognitive function, our sleep, our focus and recovery from illness that I didn't know. But, yeah, there's a reason why those health bars were always, like, away and off in the wilderness.

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I guess it made sense. And all of that is due, in fact, that time in nature actually activates what's called the parasympathetic nervous systems are fighting plane. Yep. Shifting us from fight or flight and into rest and digest. Yeah. So I had heard about the sympathetic nervous system and the fight and flight, but I didn't know rest and digest was the other side, and that just makes sense to my sense of where my body feels good.

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You know after a good meal and asleep and well it's actually functioning because when we're in fight and flight, all the blood flowing to the muscles we can run versus if we are actually at peace, the blood can flow and allow our gut health and all of those things. It's amazing. It just it just makes sense. And and those are some of the things that are activated just by common glimmers or soft fascination.

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So imagine the experience of being fully immersed in nature, because we started by talking about just those little moments that happen, and they happen all the time and anywhere we go. But imagine plunging into the cold water of a northern lake. Like that's actual immersion. Think about walking through a dense forest, sleeping under a night sky. Scientifically speaking, there are almost limitless ways that we are affected.

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Body and mind by nature. So again, we're going to geek out, going to geek. Let's take the forest puzzlers. Anybody listening? Please close your eyes. We're going to the forest. Wow. What do you see in your forest? Well, I see trees. Lots of trees. I like the really? The thought of really big trees.

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Kind of the huggable type of large tree stands. Maybe redwood type trees. Very grounding, very solid. Beautiful. Tracy, what do you hear in your forest? It's the creaking that can happen in the trees, not creaks, but the creaking of the wind and the branches shifting and moving or, you know, you can sometimes even hear a leaf falling if you're quite enough space and then birds and like the little scampering, the sound of chipmunks and things like that, and an acorn dropping to the ground.

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There you go. It got me started. Wow. She's gone. I love it. I love it. Kathryn, what do you smell in your forest? The leaves and the moss and some animal stuff. And. I love it. Even the smell of the wind. Right? It's kind of fragrant. It's cool. Sorry. That's a different scents. No. But that. Thank you, ladies, for taking us there.

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That's that's amazing. And all of those elements are not only air quotes like pretty elements like. Thank you for taking us somewhere. That was beautiful, but they actually have chemical benefits to our bodies. It's not just that we're admiring the beauty of them. They're called bitten. Fighting sides. Fight on sides, fight on sides. Like, that's such a.

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It's such an awkward word to me. But fight on sides. And these are beneficial chemicals that are produced by the trees. It's not just that our soul and our spirit is refreshed, it's that there's actual chemical stuff going on physiologically in our bodies. I mean Instagrams are all about this right now. Grateful. Having cancer healed just by spending time in the forest.

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It has, an impact on your cell cells in your body. Andrea. Yeah. Yeah. Like, it is absolutely. It's fascinating. Almost like God created for us. Yeah. See? Oh, right. Like that. He knows that we need it to be around us and to harm us and to help us see something bigger. And there's so many biblical references. So many.

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And before we get on to that, though, first we're going to go to the ocean. Okay. We're going to go to the ocean. I'm not going to ask you to close your eyes this time, but you can. They did. They just automatically did. We just wanted to go there. Everybody wants to go to the ocean. Go to the ocean.

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It's fine. Many people find the rhythmic sound of waves really soothing. I do. I love it, and I love how it changes. Sometimes it laps. Sometimes it's a washing that. It's almost one sound and other times it crashes. Did you know that negative ions are abundant near the ocean because of the force of crashing waves breaking apart water molecules?

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Oh, I knew that too. I figured you did. I spent a lot of time by Niagara Falls, the biggest producer of negative ions in the entire world. It's the most powerful falls in the entire world. And so these are called air vitamins. They attach to oxygen molecules. And just by being near them you just breathe it in.

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Yes. Amazing. So you don't even have to do anything. You just need to be present. Yeah. Present. And it's almost like it draws us there. Almost. Almost is. Anyhow, they are believed those negative ions, they improve mood and well-being. They increase serotonin and reduce stress. And there's also an increase of oxygen levels as well. So of course that like what you're saying, it makes sense, right?

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It's so logical. But what about the desert. Anyone want to go to the desert with me. No. You're all saying no. Oh great. Tracy's going to come to the desert with me. Most people think of the desert as a harsh environment and not somewhere they would want to go. I've. I've hiked the Grand Canyon, which is a I mean, it is a desert, and it's spectacular.

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I mean, it really is. And it has many health benefits, most of which you've probably heard of, because if you know anybody who has allergies or respiratory problems, they're often advised to go to Arizona. Right. Go spend time in the desert because that dry climate promotes easier breathing and reduced joint pain. And the sun. Yeah. And the sunshine.

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All that vitamin D, you know taken carefully. But that but being in the sunshine is also really good for regulating the circadian rhythms which can combat depression and seasonal affective disorder, default disorder. So all of these things, that's just that's just the science. That's just the physiological chemical facts that exist in nature for us as human beings.

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We don't even realize the interactions when they're happening. And like, you just feel a a better sense of well-being, but you don't realize all of these interactions that are happening. It's so cool all around us. Yeah. All the time, with no effort on our part, with no effort on our part.

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And so what about the spirit? Because like Catherine said, it's almost like God did this for us, created this for us. And if he created something for our mind and body, yeah, he most likely created it for our spirit as well. So I love Romans 120, which says, for ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky through everything God made.

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They can clearly see his invisible qualities. Exactly. Yes, his eternal power and divine nature. So I'm going to say we instead of they. So we have no excuse for not knowing God because he is all around us in nature all the time, no matter where you are.

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Nature was the first Bible, the first telling of God's greatness, and that telling surrounds us all the time today, from the beginning of time until today. Now, if creation reveals God's divine character and God is love, then nature is really a very loving act. Isn't the provides we humans with the gift of all that is beautiful, health promoting, inspiring and life sustaining provision?

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It's like, as you said, Catherine. It's like he did it on purpose. He did right. So created all those things and then said, somebody needs to enjoy this with me here, because why? Say it with me. Joy shared is doubled. Right. So we didn't see it right. Not so bad though. They weren't quite quick enough but that's okay.

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Joy shared is done okay. This summer I saw a bug, an insect with iridescent green wings and glassy orange eyes and furry legs. And I thought, God, you could have made it a monochromatic little slug and the same as all the other bugs. But now you made this wonderful guy and you also made fuzzy striped bees.

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And polka dotted ladybugs. And flamboyant butterflies. Why. For our pleasure and for God's pleasure I'm sure.

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And even the fact that it's color. Oh that creation has so much color. And I think about whether it's nature or beauty like it didn't for me. There's all kinds of pieces that feed into like a, that poisonous frog has bright colors for certain other good reasons and, you know, absolutely fit in. But what if it was black and white?

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Like, if God is God and I believe he is, he could have quote unquote done it in black and white. But he didn't, you know, and the fact that things happen and they have to I was holding our puppy today and I thought, how amazing is it that happiness makes her little tag Ching ching ching ching ching ching.

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Exactly. I mean, I know that it signals something. I know they could tuck between the legs. It's like art and artisan making. It can have function as well as beauty and. But. But I just thought. God, you're so cool that that little flapping tail. And then it speaks and spreads joy in the same way he spreads color through creation.

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Yeah. Well, and like nature provides health benefits. But it also just delights us. Yeah, exactly. You know. Yeah. Just for our. Just to put the smile on her face. Or stop us in our tracks and go. You know, Thomas Aquinas. More to this point. Thomas Aquinas was a 13th century theologian, and he put it this way God brought things into being in order that God's goodness might be communicated to creatures and be represented by them.

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And because God's goodness could not be adequately represented by one creature alone. God produced many and diverse creatures. That what was wanting to one in the representation of the divine goodness might be supplied by another.

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Yeah. Well we're going to put that in the show notes because you want to reason that over and, and sort of sink in to it for a little bit. You know, but it's really like God is so vast and diverse. How how do we get to see him if not through the many, many aspects, that he created himself in his creation and the needing each of the pieces and it's back to you and that identity piece.

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And Thomas Merton says, God utters me as a word. Marshall thought of himself. And so, like the thought isn't complete. And so like we talk about animal creation and all those pieces, everything is bringing something else to the table. Yeah. Both the tiny insect and the expanse of mountains. Right. All of nature points to a wondrous creator.

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This wondrous creator I want to share with you guys something that I've come into contact with in the last few years. This wonders creator is what intelligent design is all about. Are you guys familiar with the the phrase the concept of intelligent design? It's the belief that anything we look at in nature is not the result of some reductive process of chance, but the outcome of the careful design by an intelligent source.

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There's an organization called the Discovery Institute which again I want to reference in the show notes for you. It's an association of world wide scientists. From every branch of science imaginable who each in their own specialty have come to realize exactly that truth, that nature references God or as some of them will say, an intelligent designer in studying geology, astronomy, physics, biology, neuroscience, you name it, all of the sciences are covered.

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They've each drawn the same conclusion. The natural world is the result of intelligent design, and intelligence can only come from a preexisting being. Who is God. I've attended a few, Discovery Institute conferences now, and I always come away with the same sense that scientists of this conviction are actually the world's greatest, greatest evangelists. Because although the I cannot see and, you know, the soul cannot know, we can't know God, but they come.

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The closest I've ever experienced to people who have their finger on proof. That God exists because some of the things that they talk about that they show slides of art. There's just no denying that there is this intelligent source of design. In essence they're revealing the truth of Romans 120 that nature reveals God's existence. It makes you kind of wonder for someone who doesn't know God, what do they feel in nature?

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They probably sense him. But they don't know where to put that. Or do they just sensed, physical components of nature that we've talked about? I don't know. It's true. Yeah, it's true because a lot of people that don't know God, they still are very drawn to nature. I know people who've gone through, I guess a test of their faith and sort of an what do you call a deconstruction of their own faith and that sort of thing.

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But the one piece that they seem to be able to hold on to, even if they're questioning God the Father because of something they've gone through or some traumatic experience. God the creator is one thing that people seem to not struggle with receiving and accepting and holding onto. And maybe it's because it is kind of the most tangible form of God in our world.

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That's really cool. I love that nature is the most tangible form of God and humans. Well humans are a form of nature. Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh okay. So the fact that time in nature not only provides relief from mental, physical and emotional stresses of all descriptions but goes further to elevate us to an enhanced, strengthened, rejuvenated place.

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Makes sense to my core to my soul. Consider with me that like we just said. Well, nature is creation, as are we. So we can commune with our co creation, the earth and all it generates is God breathed. That first Bible that speaks of who and what God is and how he loves us and wants good things for us.

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So communing with nature is communing with creation and the creator all at the same time. Which may begin to explain the spiritually rejuvenating aspects of nature. Those things inspiration, wonder, peace, humility and awe. And I love the concept of, oh, we're going to go in a slightly different direction now, because in Scripture, the word is big as you can imagine.

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So let's listen to this for a second. Is a complex emotion encompassing reverence, respect and worship, a profound acknowledgment of God's supreme power, holiness, and authority, all of which serves as the foundation for wisdom. And I love this. A proper relationship with the divine. A proper relationship with the divine. So when you see the birds and appreciate them, or wonder at the leaves in any form that they take, you're actually putting yourself in right relationship with God.

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You're recognizing and appreciating his creation. I had a really specific experience of that, and that's kind of spiritual on the west coast of Vancouver Island. You cool it. And it was a day, the Black Rocks. But the waves were just crashing in. And it just it was so much about the sovereignty and the power of God. I mean, creation, yes, but it was that putting us in right order.

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That was very tangible evidence of God. For me. I love that you shared that. And I want you guys to share more like where, where have you found yourself completely in awe of nature, completely captivated by whatever it was that was in front of you or all around you or not a glimmer moment. I'm talking about those oh my word, God is here.

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I'd love for you to paint a picture of that for us. And what did it inspire in you? If it did? Well, maybe. Can I continue kind of with that trip? Because I love to cool it and all that that was. But this was a year ago, and my husband and I were away for our anniversary on Vancouver Island.

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And he was born in Comox, B.C. and just leading up to that time, life had been a lot like it's often a lot, but just the storms, right, that come in life where you think, I just don't know. And I'll declare it's well with my soul. And we got there and it was good, but Michael picked up a virus or something on the plane.

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Right. So we arrived at Comox and the, it was a stormy day and the winds, we were our Airbnb was on our waterfront, on the ocean. So not loving ocean. Our Airbnb lady apologized that it was not calm, still waters. I wouldn't have enjoyed it. We arrived and it was stormy and the winds were whipping. The skies were while there was salt spray on my skin.

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Michael had stayed inside and they were rocks and shells everywhere. It was a storm strewn kind of space. But beyond that there were seagulls, first of all, that were swooping. But right near we were staying. There were nesting bald eagles, and these bald eagles were just circling and swooping and playing in the storm. So when I talk about going work, walking through water and those places, water or wind that are soft are really difficult for me in a sensory way.

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But you give me a strong wind, you give me crashing waves. I could barely even leave. And I was watching this engagement of all of these different pieces, these birds. And I'd been there like, half an hour is cold. And I tucked into this other place, and I just said, God, I'd love to see a bald eagle even closer, you know, because I'd been, like, shooting with my camera.

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That's a seagull, you know that one. But, but I tucked into this corner and had just kind of prayed that I have to go in soon. And then I caught something, a corner. I just turned my phone up, and it was a bald eagle who not only came in, he came in and he landed right near me in the surf.

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I have it all on video. And he just stood there and then he swooped off. Wow. And it was such. And so when we talk to about the not just the encounter with that, but it was like it was my God moment in a time away because dear Michael wasn't feeling well. So it was kind of my only solo moment.

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There were other God moments, but where those intensity sometimes just wash it away like glue it kind of away, and then that bald eagle was such a here you go kind of moment. Yeah. I mean, so and I think you asked us at one point, I'm not sure if you asked it there. Like how did we respond to that?

00;36;05;22 - 00;36;28;23

Done. I had written a piece of poetry before I'd left. That was like the storms, the storms, the storms. Then I stood in this. It wasn't raining, but it could have been for the amount of mist coming off the water. The next morning I sat out by it, quiet and washed, and where I had had the seagulls, but the bald eagle swooping in the winds.

00;36;28;26 - 00;36;49;20

I was sitting there, and this little dove flew in. And just landed at my feet. And the piece of poetry I just kind of wrote on my phone. The two poems just kind of bookend that experience the storm and the peace that comes. Wow. And creation. So much a part of that. So story, so beautiful. What a God moment.

00;36;49;22 - 00;37;11;19

Wow. That's beautiful. Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah. Well, I think of, I'm going back to Myrtle Beach on this one. I think of and I've mentioned this time in a previous podcast, but it was after Covid, we are going back to Myrtle Beach. We hadn't been for a few years, and this is our week that we go with our family.

00;37;11;19 - 00;37;35;03

And it's very precious to me. I was so excited and just thinking about all the ways this would be restorative for because we hadn't been away for so long and I hadn't been to the ocean in so long. It's just there was like a longing to go and to be there. And then when we got there, as I mentioned, I caught Covid on the first day.

00;37;35;06 - 00;37;59;14

And so I had to be, you know, I don't want to spread it around. So I laid low in my room for most of the week. But near the end of the week I was feeling better. So I went down to the beach and it was the most glorious day. And everyone was sitting on their chairs and I decided I'm going to go for a swim in the ocean.

00;37;59;17 - 00;38;21;17

This wasn't a typical Myrtle Beach day. There's often a lot of wind and a lot of waves, but on this particular day, it was completely still and the water was completely still. And so I got in and I guess, I guess I stimulated and everybody else and everybody else decided to go into. So we all started going into the water.

00;38;21;19 - 00;38;49;28

And I just remember being in the water, and the water was this perfect temperature. It was like warm. And it was it was like a cocoon that just covered me like a hug. And then just knowing again that the water, it's salt water, it's antiseptic is so good for me because I wasn't feeling well. And and then I, I look and the sun was shining and just everything was glistening and the water was like a remarkable blue.

00;38;50;01 - 00;39;28;18

And I look beside me and there's my kids and my friends all bobbing in the blue. And I just was overwhelmed. I felt so blessed and so grateful. And I've been to Myrtle Beach many times, but that memory will stand out for a lifetime. And, you know, perhaps it's the sun after the rainy storm. You know, you do appreciate it more, but, just being in God's creation, all those elements that we talked about body, mind and spirit, and community, all of it, all together, that's amazing.

00;39;28;18 - 00;39;49;18

It's so cool, so great. So I got a little story tell this story. And so our family goes camping a lot. That's, like a summer excursion. And during the trip, we often will take little extra little pit stops or in the neighboring communities and areas. And we were driving down the road and I was like, I need to pull over.

00;39;49;18 - 00;40;06;22

I need us to pull over. I see this big open field, these like gardens, and there's this sign that says that you can, like, go exploring in it. So there's this big open area with architecture, property. And my family said, yeah, it's like my husband can be on a mission. Some of us like to be on a mission.

00;40;06;25 - 00;40;25;10

And he's like, yes, let me have this beauty pit stop. And there were all these secret gardens to walk through, stunning architecture. And I was like, oh, I wonder what you know. The secrets of this property are and the people who lived there. But more than anything, for me, there was this huge wheat field that just drew me in.

00;40;25;10 - 00;40;42;10

I just, I felt like I needed to go in the wheat field. It was like calling me. Right. And so I went in and I danced in it and I sat in it. There was something there. I was talking to God, but I had no words I couldn't even express, like, I don't know what's going on in here, God.

00;40;42;10 - 00;41;04;18

But I just feel so drawn to here. So I was in it with my whole self. It was extraordinary. I felt captivated and the wheat was dancing in the wind. It was gleaming in the sunlight. It was golden. And my family entertained my notions and they took pictures of me. And it wasn't until I got the picture that I realized that this is what happened.

00;41;04;24 - 00;41;24;02

I looked at the picture of me in the wheat field, and the words that echoed in my spirit were, the fields are ripe, for the harvest is. It was right at the start of my shift from teaching to full time ministry. I had resigned my position. God had called my spirit deeper into the fields to harvest his golden kingdom crops.

00;41;24;04 - 00;41;45;05

I cried, I worshiped, I talked to God, and I held on to his tangible picture and anointing that he was saying, I am bringing you beautiful, I mean field. Yeah. It was, oh my word, pretty was pretty amazing. I, I love that you said initially that you, you went out and you were worshiping, but you had no words.

00;41;45;07 - 00;42;14;01

No words. And then that there was such a message in that in the, in the visual. But, I it's it's stunning. There are so many writers who have written about the wisdom and wonder of nature and its ability to help us relate to intangible concepts. Right. It is that, that that tangible element of a God that we can't see.

00;42;14;03 - 00;42;57;11

I mean, there's been songs and paintings and poetry and many things that have been inspired, by nature, creative expressions of all kind, that attempt to, to that use nature to attempt to explain something that's outside of our grasp, whether it's something we can't express or something we can't see or something we like. The sound of your family and the look of your family like just an overwhelming love and appreciation and gratitude, all those things that we often turn to nature to kind of help us express and, I love Psalm 19 124 the heavens declare the glory of God.

00;42;57;14 - 00;43;21;08

The skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech. Night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech. They use no words. No sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth and their words to the ends of the world.

00;43;21;10 - 00;43;52;01

Nature speaks. When we can't often for often to us. Right. Like I've been inspired to write. And the words I have are so small in comparison to what I'm looking at. What Catherine saying. I was just your question about like is, is there a place where you feel most rejuvenated, inspired? And is it like that place that you just talked about is whoa, I never realized that, but but it's me, every single garden.

00;43;52;01 - 00;44;17;10

That is what God speaks to me. Pillar and post garden, sunflower garden, secret gardens, wheat gardens. Magical buttercup forest on the bike path, even my vegetable garden. Sometimes I can't sleep because I'm thinking about gardening. But in those places, God has spoken like in the tangible physical. There's like a verse come like verse makes understanding right about like pruning and dead verse.

00;44;17;10 - 00;44;43;22

I love gardens like that, right? Analogies. So many pieces. And so, yeah, there's something mysterious, tender, miraculous about being in the garden with God. For me and maybe for you. It's, you know, the cleft of the rock. And I'm going to guess what falls is. But but what's your what's your, your god place in nature. Oh, well, that's really easy for me.

00;44;43;23 - 00;45;12;19

It's by the water. Of course. It's Port Duluth, Lakeside Park, which is a really beautiful beach near my house. I'm just loving this conversation because I can't wait to take this conversation out to that beach and just ponder it like I. I'm finding it fascinating because I think, God, you know how how nature impacts our minds and bodies like neurologically and then our physical bodies.

00;45;12;19 - 00;45;39;18

He provides like this support for us first to sort of renew us. And then in that renewal in that space, I think we can be rejuvenated. So this goes back to just for our sake conversation. Yeah. So it's so cool how he actually provides almost like a spa experience for you. You're getting like a salt rub. And then what it does is it relaxes you enough and it opens you up.

00;45;39;25 - 00;45;57;19

Yeah. To to see him and hear him and to hear harps. And so that's what's happening. Catherine's in her garden. She can hear him, or she's sitting in her wheat field. Right? Yeah. And so for me, I mean Port Lucy, I think it's special because it's like, in my backyard. I kind of feel like I own it.

00;45;57;21 - 00;46;21;29

It's. It's a good walk, but, I just it's always different. Like, it's it's always there, and it's always the same, but it's always different. Just like the seasons we were talking about. And I just feel like there's so much going on behind the scenes. Like the birds are doing their thing, the fish are doing their thing, and there I am, you know, just enjoying it.

00;46;21;29 - 00;46;45;12

And I love it when it's when it's still and I can, I can sit in the sun and read a book or I can paddleboard my favorite, or I love it when I can walk the pier and it's like windy and wild. Yeah, yeah. And so I get to see all different parts of nature, which is actually seeing all different parts of God and his character, and that he is steady, but he is changing and he's exciting.

00;46;45;12 - 00;47;05;07

And so, yeah, I just this is a really fun conversation about things. Now that they have. You are more than welcome. Tracy, you've got something to add. I know you do, but my answer both and which isn't a surprising thing, right. So it depends on which place and time you ask me. But it's interesting when we're talking about gardens and spaces.

00;47;05;07 - 00;47;35;21

My spaces are wild, like an untamed kind of space. So in one piece of me, it would be into the forests or into the forests. Wild flowers in the ditches. I would choose wild flowers in the ditches over a garden. And just collecting, I mean, I think of a brief piece with that. My husband for years brought me home long stem red roses for Valentine's Day, and it was actually challenging in our marriage.

00;47;35;24 - 00;47;53;20

And the kids could tell stories. And our 15th wedding anniversary, he actually came home. He worked in a greenhouse. But what's like a big plastic tub and weeds out of the ditches? And it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. And not being seen too, but just. I love those wild flowers. So it could be that.

00;47;53;20 - 00;48;18;20

But the trees, the light filtering through trees, that feeling is very sheltered and enclosed or just trees at all. I flew into bc to where my sister was one time and it was rain. It had been raining like we almost didn't know if we'd get this little plane to come into Castlegar. And when I stepped off the plane and you step off a run like, you walk out of the plane itself into that little airport and the oxygen in the air.

00;48;18;20 - 00;48;43;27

Right. Because it had just been rain out the trees and stuff. But then the opposite is really barren, wide open places, desert, right, highlands, those kind of places that you just don't think life should live. And yet it does like the resiliency. This there is just something about rocks for me that I can feel those different rocks in different ways.

00;48;43;27 - 00;49;13;28

The grounding, you know, that you mentioned differently. And even for me, that sense of history, like the Grand Canyon, like whoa. And the spectrum of history that could have even carved out the Grand Canyon. And it just helps put us in perspective. Yeah. Yes. Oh, I love these. These experiences are so rich and so different. And I love that you guys painted pictures of all very, very different places.

00;49;14;00 - 00;49;42;23

And thank you so much. Perhaps be because beholding nature is the closest we can be to to visually beholding God himself. Maybe that's why they're so important and so rich. Is it any wonder that he chooses to inspire us to create and be in his image through his creation? Whether you're writing a poem, Tracy or somebody else paints a landscape or whatever it is.

00;49;42;23 - 00;50;13;15

I mean, we we are we sort of are pushed into being in his image, his image bearers when we're in creation. It's all this, this wonderful inter working of the created, the creator and the creation around us is his. We are his creation in his creation. So how do we get all these scientifically proven physical benefits from nature, as well as the mental spiritual benefits from God that he has for us in his creation?

00;50;13;18 - 00;50;35;29

What if I can't go to the Grand Canyon this week, or you can't, you know, go to England or you can't get to Myrtle Beach? Like then what? We talked about glimmers and soft fascination. How do we get more? So much of connecting with anything is about where our focus lies and our intentionality in this word comes up so much.

00;50;35;29 - 00;51;06;01

Right? Intentionality in our conversations, what we give our attention, our attention and intention to. So whether you're sitting in your living room, looking out the window, or walking through a forest, you still need to employ paying attention and curiosity because some people can walk through the forest and not notice it. That's true, right? I remember I lived in Toronto, very concrete jungle, and I would just enjoy a little flower popping out of the sidewalk, sometimes the most.

00;51;06;01 - 00;51;31;12

Yeah. And so since squirrels were so exciting. Yeah. As they were everywhere. Pigeons. Yeah. That's you. How do you choose to turn your eyes towards it and interact? I think a huge part of that is being a curious person and what I, what I love about that, like I'm, I tend to be curious. I want to look deeper.

00;51;31;12 - 00;52;02;21

And that reminds me of children, right. And children are innately curious. And that curiosity can cause the shortest of walks to take the longest of times. Anybody who's walked with a toddler knows that worms and puddles and really boring pebbles, can draw and hold their attention for a seemingly disproportionate amount of time. And I say seemingly disproportionate because maybe they see something that we are failing to see, right?

00;52;02;24 - 00;52;37;07

Maybe their fascination is something that many of us grow out of. Yeah, in favor of so-called productivity. But also maybe they know something we don't know. After all, the Bible says that we are to become like Jill. Yes. Richard Warr recently wrote in one of his recent daily meditations, all we have to do is walk outside and gaze at one leaf, long and lovingly, until we know, really know, that this leaf is a participation in the internal being of God.

00;52;37;09 - 00;53;09;03

It's enough to create ecstasy. So this week, listeners and fellow puzzlers, this week I challenge us all to follow the ways of children and Richard Pryor go for a child like walk and let a leaf or a snowflake or a shell or a pebble catch your attention. Pick it up, hold it. Really look at it. Take note of its colors, texture, shape, and smell.

00;53;09;09 - 00;53;33;21

Think about how it came to be, its lifespan, what it might become next. As Richard Rau said, gaze at it long and lovingly, long enough until you know. And the truth enters your soul that you are creation, holding creation and connecting with your shared creator.

00;53;33;23 - 00;54;10;02

Being in nature puts us in God's presence without us needing to do another thing simply, fully admiring a vivid sunrise or intricate spiderweb or a simple pebble is a form of worship. Whether we intended to be or not. In the end, just as at the beginning, nature is omnipresent. Like God, it doesn't matter where you are. Nature, an expression of God's creativity, love of beauty, delight in creation, nature, light.

00;54;10;02 - 00;54;41;05

God is with you everywhere you go. And perhaps that is why we have been created to be refreshed, healed. Absolutely inspired and rejuvenated by and yeah, I'm so glad we had this conversation. And listeners, I'm so glad you listened in. And next week we are going to hear from Tracy, who's going to take us on another rejuvenation journey.

00;54;41;08 - 00;55;09;29

I love your word gaze. It's so connected to because being rejuvenated by nature and our next conversation, which is rejuvenated by beauty, are absolutely hand in hand. And if you want of an example of this, go and find the root, the palm piece of the Wild Things by Wendell Berry. We don't have time to read it, but if I need a combination of creation and words, that is my go to.

00;55;10;01 - 00;55;25;14

But what is beauty and what what's its rejuvenating power and how do we encounter it? That's what we will be considering in episode three of The Puzzlers. And until then, beautiful listeners. May you see beauty and creation all around you in all of your ordinary days and.