Nature Walk

 

  1. Go outside to a place where you can be with nature--a park, a forest preserve, or your backyard. If you are walking, make sure to walk at a slow pace.
  2. Ponder Psalm 148:7-10 until you feel your anxieties and worries float away, until your  mind and breath feel relaxed, gentle, and free.

    Praise the Lord from the earth,
        you sea monsters and all deeps,
    fire and hail, snow and frost,
        stormy wind fulfilling his command!
    Mountains and all hills,
        fruit trees and all cedars!
    Wild animals and all cattle,
        creeping things and flying birds.
     
  3. As you walk, soak in all that you see and hear. Do not break up your surroundings into its component parts--do not identify and label the things that you see; rather, just accept the presence of the wholeness of your surroundings.
  4. What feelings well up in you as you walk? Would you describe them as feelings of consolation (that is, feelings of wholeness, peace, and harmony) or desolation (emptiness, dissonance, and fear)?
  5. Imagine that you are sharing this moment with Jesus, as two intimate friends. What do you share with him? What does he share with you?
  6. Close this meditation with the following prayer or one of your own: Heavenly Father, you created the world and saw that it was good. Help me see the goodness that is all around me, and within me. Amen.