How often do you question your own belief system?
Are you accepting packaged crap? We are all constantly lured into lazily accept entertaining holiday packages where you don’t actually see the place you visit, genetically-engineered and packaged and processed food-like products, air conditioning, and other nonsensical products that keep us in the illusion.
What about you reconnect with Nature, this weekend, instead? We don’t mean sports clothes and mountain bikes, but rather connecting with the patch of green that’s somewhere close to your home, in your neighborhood. For example, here’s a few ideas to try out and investigate if you don’t already do those things:
Do you know what types of birds live in your area?
Do you know their names, can you recognize them? Can you recognize their different sounds and voices?
Do you ever try to talk to them? Do they talk to you?
Do you feed them regularly (seeds, nuts)? Do you observe them eating? Do they come back for more?
Do you ever walk outside in the rain on purpose with the intent of actually getting wet?
Did you blow on a wishing flower recently? When was the last time you did it?
Do you have a vegetable garden patch where you plant and grow organic food?
Any of these things can become a small ritual. Some sort of discipline and spiritual practice is important to maintain a connection between the spiritual and physical worlds, but it doesn’t have to be hard, and it doesn’t have to be formal nor dogmatic. You don’t have to go to church on Sunday, to Yoga classes on Wednesday afternoon, to meditation classes on another day… schedules and structures get in the way; rituals can be spontaneous and home-grown, instead, and fill every day life. Like collecting a just-ripe tomato out of your own green house, thank Mother Earth that provided it, and the bees that pollinated that plant, and then use it right away for that day’s salad, when it tastes the best. This can be a ritual which is clearly more meaningful and pleasant than warming up a frozen industrial meal in a microwave.
These simple things will do you soul – and your body – amazingly good!
Feeding the birds can be a powerful prayer and a spiritual practice.
Ritualism is optional and its form is mutable. Spontaneity and intention are the keys.
