On Day 21 of my 30 Perfect Day project, I quoted Mahatma Gandhi, who said “A living faith will last in the midst of the blackest storm.” Hurricane Sandy came storming into Ohio. We couldn’t spend a bitterly cold night at home without heat, so we headed to daughter Melissa’s house with pizzas from our thawing freezer. I spent some time on that dreary evening working on some Artist’s Way exercises for class the next day. Cameron wrote “By seeking the creator within and embracing our own gift of creativity, we learn to be spiritual in this world, to trust that God is good and so are we and is all of creation.” I am much more spiritually connected than I was in my self-imposed prison of fifteen years ago. I’m not unique in turning within and seeking God as death comes closer, and it’s also common for people to seek out their creative gifts when life is established and the big missions in life, raising a family or building a career, are manifested. The storm outside doesn’t touch me. We ride out the storm together. We’ve been doing it for a long time. Remembering storms in your life helps you understand who you are. How have you ridden out the storms in your life? For more about finding abundance in ordinary life, go to https://www.claudiajtaller.com/30-perfect-days-finding-abundance-in-everyday-life/.
Tag Archives | nature
Log Post 20, Week 20–Sacred Nature
Many apologies for posting on Sunday this time—life gets in the way, and we have to respect that (besides, I wondered if more people pay attention on Mondays than on Fridays). In the 20th chapter of 30 Perfect Days, called “Sacred Nature,” I quote Margaret Atwood, who said that at the end of the day in the spring, we should smell like mud. Now that the snow is starting to melt and I might just see crocuses in a few days, I can think about immersing in the outdoors. I would rather walk in the woods than go to church, but it’s a really good day when I can do both. I know God’s with us as we walk and talk and experience the outdoors. What does the longing to live in the woods, away from civilization, mean? In Thoreau’s Walden, Thoreau journals about living by one’s self and being with God and Nature at Walden Pond. I still remember the solitude, reflection, ease of day that Cynthia Huntington wrote about in The Salt House: A Summer on the Dunes of Cape Cod – I must have read that book 20 years ago, and I don’t own it. I once read a book about storms in the Outer Banks written by Henry Beston called The Outermost House, where a man tried to be faithful in telling his experience of living within nature. Annie Dillard writes about hiking through the woods and noticing the daily changes in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. These memoirs are slow, meandering, and thoughtful, and I like them just the way they are—poetry in nature put on paper. What are your favorite outdoor spaces, your sacred spaces? Do you experience God in your sacred space? For more on the book, go to https://www.claudiajtaller.com/30-perfect-days-finding-abundance-in-everyday-life/.