I am included

Today I took the long way home through China Camp. I drove slowly along curvy North San Pedro Road which hugs San Pablo Bay. 4 miles of nourishment.

I love when the tide is coming in. I see rhythmic ripples in the smooth, glassy water making their way towards the shore. I admire the marshy grasses rising up out of the water softening the places where land and bay become one.

I feel the fullness of high tide in my body. I am full in a way that has happened almost imperceptibly. I’ve reached a potential overflow. My capacity to take in more slows to a stop.

I find peace and resonance when I see my internal & external states in the natural world. The constant movement of it all, slowly but surely, reassures me that this too will pass.

I am calmed by the idea of the natural world seeing me. I feel love of life from trees, soaring birds, bees, a hillside brushed golden with dry autumn grass, and the breeze with just a hint of cool air after a long hot day.

The shared love of life is restorative and nourishing. When I can look around me and see such beauty, it doesn’t make sense that I would be excluded from that beauty. I am included.

I can experience so much pain and suffering around the ways I feel I fall short. I don’t just want to be beautiful, I want to experience the beauty of life fully. Full life immersion has so much space and acceptance for everyone and everything.

I am moved to tears at the simplicity of it all. Seeing and feeling the simplicity of life after being immersed in complexity allows my fullness to spill over and start to empty out.

There will always be cycles of too much and not enough. I can find ways to feel loved and safe in the world because I can notice the rhythm of the tides coming and going out. I sometimes rely on the presence of trees and on the bodies of water I have relationships with, and on the elements occurring in their own dance that I have no control over. It helps me understand how to be with people whose lives impact mine and all that I have no control over.

Nature is a master class on how to be with what is. It’s completely free to take the time to sit, observe and feel.