Heart-Thinking
perceive the world in such a way that it nurtures your mental health
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Spring has been slow in arriving this year. Temperatures remain cool, and the landscape is subdued. This significant delay comes from the lack of sunshine. Nearly every day is grim and overcast. Without the warming rays of the sun and its bright, glowing, cheerful light, plants' emergence, growth, and bloom are considerably delayed.
Only the mountain laurel shows up in the woods with deep green foliage, and the sprinkling of green pushing through the leaf duff on the ground are the leaves of the Canada Mayflower.
My soul longs for the spring season to assert itself and manifest its many wonders and delights. This lack of green and bloom has caused me to seek and search with a keen eye and highly attuned senses for signs of returning life.
The first news of returning life came from a tiny painted turtle that hatched last fall and overwintered beneath the ground. I told her story, which began last August when I wrote A Discovery of Turtles.
In that garden bed I wrote about in August, I found this little one, still in a sleepy torpor, sunning on a stone.
Turtle hatchlings are the most vulnerable now, going from underground nests to the water where they make their homes. Whenever I find one, I take it to the pond. If they seem lively and fully awake, they go right into the water. However, this one seemed quite sleepy, so I created a small sheltered place for her to rest at the pond's edge until she absorbed adequate sunshine and was energized and ready to take the plunge. (Somewhere in this story there’s a lesson about spiritual awakening which I will write about another time.)
UPDATE: this little one made it into the pond safely and today I found yet another hatchling in my garden., I took her to the pond, she was quite awake and raring to go. Then as I turned around to go back to the garden I looked down and still another hatchling was making its way to the pond so I gently lifted him and set him in the water. This is important work because so many, the vast majority, of turtle nests are predated by skunks, racoons and foxes. So I’m committed to doing my part in helping those lucky few who hatch to get to the safety of the pond giving them the best chance of survival.
Rudolph Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul is a continuing inspiration for me. It begins on Easter Sunday and takes you on a profound soul journey week by week through the year. The very first entry touches on the necessity of the Sun for the world of nature and our souls. The current scarcity of sunny days has made this week’s insights deeply moving and caused my soul to long with even more desire for spring sun to grace my days.
This section of commentary by Eloise Krivosheia on entry one in the Calendar of the Soul sounded a note of instant recognition for me.
The Sun, World-Light, speaks to us, wanting us to grasp the essence of things.
When we watch a plant grow in its details, we take in its etheric formative forces. Beholding the plant with “heart thinking,” maybe we even sense what this plant is, what it says to us. In becoming consciously, intimately aware of its growing process, our thinking is strengthened….we may ask ourselves, “Do we perceive the world in such a way that it nurtures our mental health?”
The concept of “heart-thinking” really resonates with me. Heart-thinking is how I engage with all plants and animals. It’s why spending time in my garden, in the woods, at the shore, or in a sunny meadow is so fulfilling and restorative for me. I am constantly reaching out to every living being I encounter in my surrounding with love and the request for divine blessing.
Reaching out with love as thought, vibration, energy and action allows me to perceive the world in such a way that it nurtures my mental health. This can only be done when we are actually in contact with nature. Videos, documentaries, books and even poetry about nature can help heal and calm our frazzled nervous systems but nothing is as powerful and transformative as real world encounters with plants, animals, wind and weather.
One of my most fulfilling, instructive and joyful nature practices besides gardening is keeping a nature journal. This is how I watch a plant grow in its details, and take in its etheric formative forces. This is how I learned to commune with the genius loci, the spirit of the land where I live and how I connected with the garden spirits and the woodland dyrads. Through nature journaling I learn both the science and the spirit of what lives around me.
For over a decade nature journaling was a passion, a beneficial obsession. I was filling a fifty page sketch book nearly every month for years and years. As I took on larger and larger gardening projects more of my time was spent in my garden journal documenting what was planted where, how it grew in its location, plant combinations I wanted to try, projects I wanted to tackle and of course a never ending wish list of plants. But I still nature journal on an off allowing me to watch and know, heart-know, plants and their details.
I know that not everyone thinks they can draw. Though I am firmly in the camp that drawing is a skill that can be learned and its really not that hard with a little instruction and practice, especially if your goal is simply an adequate representation and not a masterpiece of detailed perfection. Good is good enough in a nature journal.
Even if you’re teriffied of drawing I still recommend nature journaling in various forms as a nature practice that will help you sense what a plant is, in its essence, and what it says to you. In becoming consciously, intimately aware of its growing process, your inner thinking and your soul is strengthened.
Ways to nature journal include simply written documentation in prose or poetic form or photographs with descriptions. If you garden you can create a hybrid garden-nature journal. The important thing is that this becomes a practice, an integral part of how you engage the real world of nature and take in its etheric formative forces which greatly benefit your body mind and soul helping you perceive the world in such a way that it nurtures your mental health.
Perhaps keeping some kind of a nature journal is too intimidating or too time consuming. That’s OK. Grow something. Pick something that will attract pollinators, butterflies or birds. Grow it in your yard or on your deck or patio in a pot. Nurture it, talk to it, observe it closely with heart-thinking. Or buy a pair of binoculars and start observing the world around you. Look in the trees for buds leaves, nuts, birds squirrels and more. Look at the clouds, moon and stars. Put out a birdfeeder, birdbath or birdhouse and make it your practice to watch and observe regularly with heart-thinking. Gradually you will be strengthened in you heart and mind as you create a life that is founded on real life encounters with the goodness of the natural world and you will over time fall prey less and less to the manipulation, fears and lies of the dark spirits in the world. Your heart will feel ease and as clarity comes to your soul your mind will find rest and peace.
There are so many good and beneficial things to focus our attention on at this time of year, the Sun as World-Light is one. Beholding plants with heart-thinking is another. How watching a plant grow allows us to take in its etheric formative forces is yet another profound experience to ponder.
Being present in and with nature throughout the seasons is the most powerful way to shift your perception of the world in such a way that your new point of view and day to day experiences nurture you mental health.
Let’s encourage one another in this endeavor. Share how you engage with nature in a way that’s healing and wholesome for your mental health. Is it walking or hiking in nature? Gardening? Nature photography? Bird watching? Or something else?
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I’m reading this just after coming back inside from writing my morning pages in the garden. I find myself pointing out all the things I notice while I’m writing, a stream of consciousness. The rowan tree is nearly ready to bloom but not yet. The forget-me-nots and apple blossoms fill the whole space with an abundance of pollen. I didn’t think of it as nature journaling til reading this but it really is!
I love your journal drawings and your writing, I hope you get to fill some pages with spring soon 🌞
Jan, I wish you abundant sunshine, warm days, and the unfolding of spring blooms! Here in Central Virginia spring came early, and unseasonably warm weather made it seem like it was on fast forward. Now the trees are all green and today I saw the first iris blooming. Sadly this season highlighted the effects climate change.
I mainly engage with nature by looking outside frequently. There are woods on three sides of the house. The other has a meadow and a view of the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I feel incredibly fortunate. Since I have MS many other activities aren't readily available. My primary creative outlet is collage. Nature is definitely good for my mental health. And I like the concept of heart-thinking.