Nature is my happy place. Yesterday, I started the morning on horseback riding around a local lake. I grew up riding horses, but it had been 20 years since I sat in the saddle and I wanted to reclaim that piece of me again. 

I was back at the same lake later in the afternoon to walk with a friend. Awkwardly adjusting for social distance. During that visit I gave my worries to a rock and threw it far (or not) into the water. The weight of worry now resting with mother nature. Then I placed my hands in the water to hear the truth now that the worry was being held by a greater force than me. 

As the sun started to set, I returned to the lake again. An itch not quite scratched by my earlier visit. I retraced my steps and went farther. To another shoreline. I walked by a peace symbol made of rocks and found a large log that seemed to have held many thoughts and conversations while quietly offering support. A good place to rest. 

On this visit I took my shoes off and stood in the lapping water. Closing my eyes and feeling mother nature in many forms. There is a soothing quality to lapping water. Much like time spent with my head in my grandmother’s lap and her stroking my hair. I stayed until the itch subsided. Until there was no memory of an itch. Just quiet contentment. 

Before I left, I wrote in the sand what the water and wind had whispered to me. 

Acknowledging what I already knew in my heart. 

It was a day like many I spent growing up. In nature surrounded by truth, love, and infinite possibility. Days there were far too few in the life of my career. Days I know I will have many more of. 

As a person who believes every person has a moment when their soul will no longer be denied it is inevitable that I will return again and again to places where my Self and my Soul step into alignment with other. 

Leaving one set of footprints in the sand of my life. 

Where does your life feel out of alignment?

I have found that too often we humans try to walk multiple paths at the same time. A belief of who we must be in our professional life, which is “supposedly” separate from our personal life, and then there is who we are when we are alone. The “who” longing to be a part of our professional and personal life. Waiting for the one day to come so a piece can be recaptured again. Or, more precisely, a peace to be recaptured. 

The reality is we are not meant to create fragmented experiences. A whole experience is created when we become aware that separation exists, acknowledge that which we don’t want to,and choose to make choices to allow the “who” to show up fully in all aspects of life. 

Recap: 

Awareness 

Acknowledge 

Choose new 

While it would be easy to say I have mastered this alignment tool in my life it would not be true. The path of alignment and fully living from that place is a continutal journey. At least it is for me, at this time. I don’t always make the decisions that leave me feeling fully aligned but even those give me an opportunity to learn what doesn’t work. 

• What is one thing you love(d) to get lost in? 
• What does it feel like to you?
•  Have you recently allowed yourself to do that which sparks joy/ease/contentment in your life? 
• If not, what is the reason you are telling yourself you can’t? 
• How can you support your eternal source of alignment by choosing a different thought? One that supports giving time and space to the thing you love? 
• Is this something you can make a regular practice.

 Allowing creative expression in whatever form provides air and space for you to expand and transform whatever you are touching in other areas of your life. Think of it as providing oxygen to every part of who you are. The “can’t do” become a little smaller and the list of “can do” isn’t followed by a one day. Your zone of alignment is found within and the world is waiting for you to shine bright. 

May you find that log to sit on, rock to give your worries to, and comfort in the nature that exists around you and within you. 

Until we meet again.