24/24/24

 They say that when you sit at a computer for a long time, you should practice the Rule of 20...every 20 minutes look 20 feet away for 20 seconds.  Sound advice to save our eyes from fatigue...and perhaps even our sanity at times.  I was reminded of that health tip today after texting with a friend who SO wanted to stop the work she was doing, because as she put it, she was "feeling drawn to pen some words."  I encouraged her, as I did everyone on Day Three of my blog, to take just 15 minutes and write what she saw out her window. I was hoping that this might energize her, letting her brain break the cycle of planning and prepping she was engaged in, to finish her day's work with a fresh, maybe more creative perspective.  

This got me thinking about that little helpful phrase...20 minutes, 20 feet, 20 seconds. If our eyes need that kind of redirection and rest, what about our spirits?  Is the pause that sleep gives us enough, especially when most of us don't get our body's required need through the week anyway?  Is watching TV the best distraction from a stressful mind?  I will admit that sometimes it is, but as a consistent solution, I think we all know by now this is not a healthy practice in dealing with life's daily stress points.  So what about a small solution, a simple piece of the puzzle to keep us creative, and on-track to be our best mental and spiritual selves?



How about every 24 hours, spend 24 minutes, writing at least 24 words?  Words that perhaps carry some meaning for you on that particular day or for your life in general. Words in a journal or on a scrap of paper to be tossed once you're minutes are up. Words that are affirmations.  Words that come from a sacred text.  Words that review your mission or calling in life.  Words that are prayers. Words that bless, express gratitude or words that may come from a dry, burdened heart.  Above all, truthful words...

Last year I heard a quote from someone that said, "The act of stopping...literally stopping what you are doing...is a form of repentance."  Repentance in its literal meaning "to turn around and go in the other direction."  Religious and non-religious people throughout history, albeit too few, practiced this art of stopping to once again acknowledge their God, their purpose or who they really are...mystics, monks, Muslims, recoverers, etc.  And occasionally an average Joe or Joetta, like you and me, learn the art of human rebooting. 



Twenty-four minutes every twenty-four hours. Now some days this just can't be done, I get that. But this is less than 3 hours a week devoted to self-care and creativity, so it's worth trying. Are you worth 2.8 hours of your own time?  Of course you are!  Can it be done?  If you're willing...you tell me.



Mini-Retreat Suggestion:  You know the drill...:-)

 

OLD BONES / OLD SOULS - Day Three

Lots of crunching and
cracking

interrupts this quiet
fall morning,

the kind of perfect
day I wish 

could enter every cell
of my body.

But it's not just my old
bones I hear,
it's the twig snap of a
white-tailed deer

running scared when the path turns.

It's the squirrels
making provisions,
their chins looking
charred from
gleaning black,
cracked walnuts

It's the blue jay,
high in the canopy
hammering hickory nuts
and letting
the pieces splatter to the dry ground.

It's hundreds of
grackles and blackbirds,

chattering as they
mass migrate from one
tree top to another,
that comfort me.

Their chorus, which is
for me not them,
(they know how to
navigate this world),
says, "It is time
now...

...get ready
...wind down
...make soup
...plan to have some
folks over
...choose something to
learn
on those too soon
nights
when the wind
threatens harm
just outside the
frosted window.
"Study
blackbirds," they say.

This is what those old
souls are clacking.

They're reminding me
there are reasons 

for the seasons.


Mini-Retreat Suggestion:
Take 15 minutes to look outside your favorite window in your house.  Write a short poem about what you see.  What elements of fall call you to "wind down?"  Post your thoughts under Comments.

HIGH-TECH WALK - DAY TWO

                                       

When I set out down the prairie path this chilly morning, with its low-hung, gray sky, I decided to try to look with an artist's eye; to notice the composition of things framed in a view-finder, see the colors and the textures around me.  Though I began this way, with binoculars on and camera in hand, what struck me were all the sounds I heard in the quiet vacuum the songbirds left.  And from that observation, came a new idea for me...to record my thoughts for future writings on my I-Phone while I walked. Since I had it on me, today was my first experiment, so it remains to be seen whether I like the idea.  I felt a bit "on the spot" at first...almost making stuff up if I started down a thought and then ran out of interesting things to say.  But eventually, I settled in...or more appropriately...it settled into my shirt pocket.

 In every season there are dominate flowers in the prairie.  Just a few
weeks ago it was the yellow goldenrods, the white bonesets and the
purple ironweed complimenting each other.  Today, near the end of September, it is the Asters.  They are the only bright whites
and shades of purple popping out against the browning and faded backdrop
of grasses and flowers going to seed.  Prairies are dynamic, and even
when that last flower family hangs low and brown, it will have a warm
beauty all its own (until perhaps the purple stiff gentian blooms...one last colorful hurrah in
October!)  

The tall bluestem arches over the path and I must push it aside to move on.  Parachutes of milkweed seeds are leaving their gnarly pods or just about to. The periwinkled mist flower, so abundant and glorious this year, is fading to a dirty blue and makes me a little sad.  Things fade in life.  My lips and hair are proof.  But this is not a dead prairie, though the unknowing eye may see it that way. When I take women for walks here I explain to them that when it turns this color, the land becomes a smorgasbord for all sorts of other creatures.  Not dead at all, just at one of the ever-revolving stages of life...the one where one life must end so another life can begin. 





 

Here are two mini-retreat suggestions for tonight or tomorrow:

1. Find something in nature that looks dead.  Is it really dead or merely dormant?  Is it now completely useless?  What are the chances new life came from it in some way?


2. If your phone has recording capabilities, go off by yourself and answer this question in the microphone:  "[Your Name], what I would like to say to you is..."   Yes, what would you like to say to yourself?  Sounds silly...but I'll bet it will be interesting.

 Don't forget to comment...I would love to know your thoughts

HOW I TAKE A RETREAT - DAY ONE

No one said going on a retreat is easy, even though the point once you get there is to let go and ease your mind from all its stresses and voices. So after getting all the other aspects of my life cleaned and put away, washed and folded, bought and bagged, gathered and dispersed, I turned my attention to the one aspect I want to focus on for the next five days, which is writing. 

Now, one cannot concentrate on any creative endeavor 24/7, so I have a few worthy distractions when I'm not sitting at the computer or walking the Refresher Course for inspiration.  I like to lay it out - literally.  On the entry room table (i.e., dining, art, desk) at Prairie Pond Woods I have set about all the things I desire to engage in, as well as the cameras, field guides and binoculars ready to grab at a moment's notice for the big surprise awaiting outside. 


 



(As I wrote this post...a loud thump came from the patio door...I grabbed the well-placed camera and caught a juvenile titmouse that had crashed into the glass...after an hour or so it must have flown off...happy ending)

 

  There's my morning meditative reading (this month, The Artist's Rule), my 2012 and 2013 calendars for a little business and pleasure planning, a few poetry books and another book I may or may not read this go-around entitled, On the Unseriousness of Human Affairs by James V. Schall.  Also laid out is a 10-year Phenology Journal I keep (woefully neglected this spring and summer) and lastly, a few files of family genealogy, in case I really need a brain change. 

So, all the chores are done, and if there are more, they can wait.  The plan is to take morning and evening walks (with camera and notepad in hand), do some reading and journaling afterward, then write.  The goal is to continue to work on a compilation of nature poems, essays and prose, accompanied by photos, that I hope to turn into a book.



I invite you along on this 5-day journey with me online or in reality, and encourage you to take a mini-retreat of your own this week.  Maybe just a half-hour everyday to do something you love; something BY YOURSELF that feeds your soul. I would love to read your comments, as well as hear about your own experiences with taking a retreat.  It won't be easy, but as the saying goes, not everybody does the hard, but significant, things in life.

A Day of Questioning Yourself

Saturday, October 20
10 am – 5 pm

Now, it's not what you might think! 

 

We won't spend the day second-guessing our lives
or questioning our worth in the world,

but we will ask ourselves some important questions.  

In the gospels,
Jesus asked 168 questions.  He was asked 186 questions, only 3 of which
he answered directly.  As Jesus showed us, often the answers are discovered
through the questions.  You are invited to spend a day asking and
answering a few for yourself.  

Nature Walk, Lunch, Handouts, Solitude and Fellowship
provided

What are you looking for?

                                                     -Jesus

 
♥

Update: Overnight Option is full!!

There are two options for this Fall Retreat...One-day & Overnight.
Friday evening will be a casual time to unwind with fellowship under the
stars, maybe a creative activity and simple snacks. We might even venture out for a
night hike...

Contact cindy@heartbynature.com for more info

or to register as an individual or group.

One-day - Saturday 10 am - 5 pm
-$45.00 pp (5 max)
Overnight- Friday 7pm - Saturday 4/5pm-
$75.00 pp (5 max)

Registration limited to 10 total

Registration Deadline: Monday, October 8, 2012

OCTOBER RETREAT

A Day of Questioning Yourself

Saturday, October 20
10 am – 5 pm

Now, it's not what you might think! 

 


We won't spend the day second-guessing our lives

or questioning our worth in the world,

but we will ask ourselves some important questions.  

In the gospels,
Jesus asked 168 questions.  He was asked 186 questions, only 3 of which
he answered directly.  As Jesus showed us, often the answers are discovered
through the questions.  You are invited to spend a day asking and
answering a few for yourself.  

Nature Walk, Lunch, Handouts, Solitude and Fellowship
provided

What are you looking for?

                                                     -Jesus

 
♥

Update: Overnight Option is full!!

There are two options for this Fall Retreat...One-day & Overnight.
Friday evening will be a casual time to unwind with fellowship under the
stars, maybe a creative activity and simple snacks. We might even venture out for a
night hike...

Contact cindy@heartbynature.com for more info


or to register as an individual or group.

One-day - Saturday 10 am - 5 pm
-$45.00 pp (5 max)
Overnight- Friday 7pm - Saturday 4/5pm-
$75.00 pp (5 max)

Registration limited to 10 total

Registration Deadline: Monday, October 8, 2012

OPEN AND SHUT

This morning while sitting quietly and meditating, I remembered the partial lyrics from an old song:  

"Open my eyes, Lord,  

I want to see Jesus. 

Open my ears, Lord  

And help me to listen." 

 

So I asked the Creator to open my eyes and my ears. Then I thought about my heart and determined I needed to ask God to open that symbolic organ…as well as my very real mind. Since I had just finished exercising, I decided to ask that my lungs be opened more fully. For good measure, I added my veins and arteries, the pores of my skin, my joints, and finally my mouth to always be open to bless with truth and beauty only.

I began to see how many things in our internal and external lives can be clogged, choked or closed…sometimes with just a tiny opening, sometimes merely shut and sometimes locked tight. So again I asked the Spirit to open my relationships. To open up my marriage in new ways. To expand my friendships, both in quality and quantity. I asked that my business relationships be opened, as well as my relationship to my retreat business. I asked to experience continual wonder of the created world.

Because I was praying, I asked God to open up my practices of prayer and meditation. I thought about the prayer of Jabez: "Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory!   In essence, open up my life and the spaces around me to receive your goodness. A bold request. And hard to say whether Jabez was so tired of having a small, closed life that this was a prayer of desperation or whether because his life was so full and open, this prayer merely sprang from his heart.

I asked all these things so that my life is, indeed, open. And free. Vessels used by God must be open. I cannot be closed and be a cheerful giver. I cannot be closed and see that the cranky waitress might need some encouragement. I cannot be closed and extend to another grace when they fail to meet my expectations.

More and more today, I see minds closed, unwilling to communicate or even be rational. I see fists closed, unable to lend a hand or closed tightly around a handgun. I see hearts closed and suspicious, full of fear. Over and over, God and angels speak the same 3 words to humanity: Do not fear! A speaker said once, "The opposite of love is not hate, but fear."  So be open. Be courageous. Be curious. Be joyful. Be intentional. Be flexible. Be kind. Be helpful. Be quiet. Be gracious. Be accepting. Be Jesus to the closed off and fearful. Because Love, so large and powerful, cannot flow from vessels that are sealed, clogged or have only very small openings. 

POETRY IN MOTION

Neighbor’s Garden

I came to pick up the vacation paper
And suddenly, I am on a safari.


Morning breezes usher out the haze-
Open stage for all winged creatures,
Black vulture and hummingbird,
Monarchs with Viceroy twin.

All around me, movement, like random,
diving leaves after an early autumn frost.
Lost among the coneflowers, Pearl Crescents
rise like a wave as the wind stirs.

A dragonfly charges me, defending new prey.
How odd to see the tables turned on a yellow jacket.

There are no fragrances this late in summer,
just the heavy smell of heat rising.
Sounds of August music ebb and flow,
With background static of cicadas.


But there is no shortage of color-

Gliding,

Fluttering,
Soaring,

Basking,
Launching,

and Landing-
I’d go deaf if I could hear their wings beat.

Cindy Steffen

August, 2002

PATH WAYS

A recent photo I posted on Heart By Nature's Facebook page got me thinking about paths...both the real and metaphorical kind.  The description of the photo was,

 
"Prairie Pond Woods has paths for all sorts of thinking, praying,
meditating, singing, observing, skipping, drawing, closing your eyes and
filling your senses or just pausing to consider all you have to be
thankful for." 





It's true.  There are paths that circle around the prairie, paths that lead to Adirondack chairs in the woods, a path that leads down to the pond and one that connects Kavanah to a swing in the Pine Sanctuary.  On a good day, when the temperature is right and the pace is slow and full of observations and discoveries, it can take over 2 hours to walk this Refresher Course. But even longer if you take the time to sit and contemplate the personal "paths" you are currently on in life, how you got there or where you might want to go instead.

There are many references to paths in sacred texts and the writings of great men and women.  Jesus refers to the "narrow path" that his followers need to choose, and equates our hearts with "the path" on which God sows the seeds of the Kingdom.  Robert Frost, by his poetic example, encourages us to follow the "path or road less traveled."  And of course who can forget the many lessons learned on the "yellow brick road" (which eventually turned into just a path).

All of us are on a course...some kind of "path" that we  either consciously chose or perhaps ventured down while we weren't really paying attention.  Or maybe we are on a chosen path but still not really paying attention...not being intentional or grateful or joyful or filling it with the creative energy we are capable of. There's always time for course corrections and as the T-shirt slogan reminds us:

 

"Not All Who Wander (down unknown paths) are Lost." 

Recently, I hosted a woman, an artist, who came to Prairie Pond Woods for a
personal retreat.  She was on a path of busyness, but had the great
wisdom to detour down another path of solitude and rest.  More than once she commented to me during her retreat how just walking outside in silence cleared her mind and created a receptive spirit within her.  With her permission, I'm sharing the email she sent when she returned home, in hopes that her experience might be of inspiration to other artists...or moms, or students, or other average folks like you and me. 

"Just want to let you
know how much I loved being at Prairie Pond Woods--it was a
wonderful escape from the busyness that my everyday life brings!
It was lovely spending time with you as well, thank you for the
guided tour of the Refresher Course, I very much enjoyed
learning about the nature and terrain on the property. And the
extra special bonus was getting to know you...thank you for
listening and bearing witness to my new discoveries of myself
and nature! "


"Prairie Pond Woods is a very special place. The time I spent
there has inspired my creativity and reinvigorated my desire to
get back into the ceramic studio. I've long known that spending
time outside in quiet settings refills my well of positive
energy but the retreat you've created enhanced that process in
so many ways. My favorite spot, as you know, was the Kavanah! I
loved bringing my art journal, supplies and books up there and
spending the day doing whatever my heart desired."



"Thank you so very much for an amazing couple of days! I will be
back again when my well runs dry!"

Lisa
www.lisawolters.com

To schedule a personal retreat contact Cindy Steffen at 937-532-6688 or cindy@heartbynature.com

FIREFLIES!

Over the years when leading hikes, I would often get many of the same questions about nature.  Two of the most common came after explaining some aspect of ecology; how this plant needs that bug for pollination or how wetlands are needed to sustain a multitude of species. Suddenly a light bulb would come on about this web-of-life concept and someone would blurt out, "Well then, what good are mosquitoes?" This, usually after too long swiping them from their face. Or someone else would ask, "So, what is the point of poison ivy?"  I actually loved it when these questions would come up, even if some folks thought they were being clever. It gave me the opportunity to continue to expand of the interconnectedness of things...things they could relate to.

So, I would explain the importance of mosquitoes at the low end of the food chain for aquatic life, bats, birds, etc. The poison ivy question was a good stepping off point into the area of how anthropocentric we can be...something can't be good if it is not good for humans. But poison ivy berries are delicacies for some birds (not to be too anthropomorphic about it :), and one of the first foods birds consume in late summer. I would always recommend that if people had poison ivy on their property, and it wasn't in a place where others could get in to it, they should leave it for the birds. Not many takers on that one, though.  

I've also led a few night hikes, mostly full moon hikes or took kids out to hear owls, spark Lifesavers in our mouths in complete darkness and watch fireflies. I don't think I've ever had anyone ask, "What good is a firefly?"  But it is a really good question.

The larvae of fireflies, sometimes called "glow worms," do feed on worms and snails...but adults merely feed on each other...or maybe nothing at all.  Scientists are not quite sure.  And adults, like the Monarch butterfly, have an unpleasant taste they produce if attacked, which comes from drops of blood.  Consequently, they have few predators, and are not really part of the food chain, per se.  

As a someone who dwells in both the worlds of science and faith, I love it when every now and then something is unexplainable, except that it is a gift of sheer beauty and wonder.  If someone were to ask me what fireflies are good for, I would have to say I don't know. I just know that when I see the first ones in summer I am thrilled - transported back to some of the fondest memories of my childhood.  And in the middle of summer, standing on the deck at Prairie Pond Woods, looking out over the prairie, I am dazzled. Someday, an entomologist may discover their ecological purpose, but until then I am content to leave the question unanswered...and just watch. 

I hope you will take a minute or two this long weekend to look for "lightening bugs" in your backyard or at a park. They are fascinating and complex creatures...and becoming harder and harder to find. To learn more click here.