commuting

Unwind After Work In Nature!

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Wednesdays After Work
Ongoing Series (Drop-ins welcome if room available)

May 15–June 19
Wednesdays from 5:50–6:30 PM
Free Introduction May 8

Enhance your connection to nature and your authentic self. Join me for a 6-week series of facilitated walks on “Wednesdays After Work.” Feel your tension and stress melt away as you experience nature’s healing presence through a facilitated mindful walk.

Different from a regular walk, I will guide you in easy-to-follow ways that significantly enhance your relaxation and sense of peace. It’s quite powerful, even for people who have struggled with other relaxation methods. Learn to use the power of your senses combined with mindful awareness to feel refreshed and energetically alive after your work day.

We will walk out in the open space of Hadley, where the feeling of big sky is present. Each week will focus on a slightly different aspect of experiencing nature, often dependent on what the weather presents. There will be an emphasis on experiencing the openness, luminosity, and visual diversity of the sky, but we will have opportunities to connect deeply with all aspects of the landscape, including spending time along the Connecticut River. This is primarily a meditative practice and we will always be walking on well-worn paths. There is room for about ten participants, and if there is sufficient interest I will set up another group for a different day of the week.

Call Chris Page at 413-237-3466 to sign up 

Winter Fog – Land and Sky as One

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A commuter’s moment that got me to stop and spend a few unexpected minutes taking in the fog.

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Feeling the cold air I let myself get lost in the enveloping light. Even the rising sun was veiled in the luminous density this morning. I only wish I could have spent more time witnessing the transformation of light and landscape as the fog lifted.

First Snow—Merging of Earth and Sky

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I am a quite excited to explore the white world of winter and to see what new understandings develop as I open my awareness to this new landscape. The first full covering of snow on the ground with the monochrome white sky created a world where only the horizon offered much indication of division between heaven and earth.

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Sky Mirroring in Hadley 12.13.2012

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Miday along the Connecticut River

Midday along the Connecticut River.

The deep translucent blue of the sky reflected in the river offered a great opportunity to meditate and experience clear light throughout my body. Also meditated on the way the sky above is also the water below. Confounding the natural logic of earth below and sky above is always a mental treat.

Harmonizing with the Four Elements

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FIRE, AIR, WATER, EARTH

I use the four elements as a rough guide to creating a balanced awareness, both in nature as well as within.

So, for example, the experience of the sun acquaints me with the nature of FIRE, the sky with AIR, the ocean, lakes, rivers and rain with WATER, and the land, trees, and flowers with the EARTH.

Through developing conscious awareness of these four qualities while out in nature I believe we can find the balance of well-being within.

I generally work from the EARTH element into the FIRE Element and back to the EARTH element. I try to create a balance of natural energies, ending in awareness at the EARTH level, which is the plane of action.

These four elements I work with come out of ancient knowledge and were refined and reconsidered in the writings of the Báb and Bahá’u’láh, the two manifestations of the Bahai movement.

Know that the first tokens that emanated from the pre-existent Cause in the worlds of creation are the four elements: fire, air, water and earth…. Then, the natures (ustuqusát) of the four appeared:  heat, moisture, cold and dryness—those same qualities that you both know. When the elements interacted and joined with one another, two pillars became evident for each one:  for fire, heat and dryness, and likewise for the remaining three in accordance with these rules, as ye are aware.

Bahá’u’láh

According to Aristotle in his On Generation and Corruption:

  • Fire is primarily hot and secondarily dry.
  • Air is primarily wet and secondarily hot.
  • Water is primarily cold and secondarily wet.
  • Earth is primarily dry and secondarily cold.

My interest is mostly as a metaphor for the different aspects of experience in nature, as well as seeing time as a continuous cycle of change and development.

Relating to the process of time, the calendar year can be seen as a cycle moving through these aspects.