Outdoor Introspection

[By: Sean Glenn]

Today was a really nice day to march.  Today I saw lots of sunflowers!  They were absolutely beautiful.  They were buds… sometimes.  Others were not yet to that point.  I kissed lots of them.  They made me smile.  We marchers whistled, “You Are My Sunshine.”  We planted more sunflower seeds, more friends for these marvelous beings.

I just can’t tell you how happy seeing these young plants made me.  I was overwhelmed with hope.  I danced and twinkled; made sure my fellow marchers saw them.  They were excited as well possibly more for my own benefit than the flowers, but joy is joy and I will take it oh so happily.

These sunflowers that we found today were here before me.  They were planted by something, someone other than myself marching across the country, planting sunflowers, mostly silently.  A vision is well on its way!

My mother within the past year discovered a saying, “Nature never rushes yet everything gets done.”  She was sure to share it with me on my darkest days.  She was wise to do so, as she is such an intelligent woman, thank you Mom.  She has fostered in me such a deep and true love of all things organic.  Thank you Mom. A million times thank you.  In this simple phrase she would help pull me out of my depression back into my appreciation for this beautiful planet Earth.

Nature, unfolds… like potential-full buds.  What needs to take place, will.  This planet has survived for so long without us and it will continue to thrive.

I am so grateful for all the time we are spending in our element on this march.  A much needed journey of outdoor introspection.  In walking I am coming to understand mortality in a more cyclical way.

Everyday we come upon death.  Dead butterflies offering a closer look at their fragile wings, cacti that have passed on to new beginnings, asphalt that has buried an old pathway through a once untouched land.

The Earth is dying, always and forever.  But we must remember an end is not a transition into non-existence.  It is simply a new comprehension of what is right now.  Nothing disappears, everything changes.

This climate mess is scary.  I was not alone, am not alone when I fall into the “glass totally empty” mentality regarding the state of our world.  But this Great March is so helping me to see the beauty just overflowing from the glass.

I am so easily distracted by all the life around me.  Thank goodness.  Thank Mother Earth.  She is constantly being reborn.  A millions times thank you.  She is always coming up with new solutions the imaginative, loving, nurturer that she is.  She is the most accepting being; receptive to all.  She proves this time and time again as she works to bring us back in balance with each other, with ourselves.  A billion times thank you.  She shows her love in placing those sunflowers along our path.  She is so wise, she must have known how happy I would be to see them.  We share a vision.  We are making each other smile.  We are carefully crafting a better today.  We are planting all sorts of seeds.  Seeds I may not always be conscious of, though I know and trust she has a clear understanding and love for what comes next.  I can’t wait to see what this moment will bring.  But I will do my best to stay here, now and trust the unfolding.  Thank you, I love you, thank you.