The Lastlings
My garden was different this morning. It felt like I was walking into a wind tunnel without the physical manifestation. My hair was not being tossed about my face. My eyes were not feeling the touch of the airy swoosh that makes them close. But there was a wind in my garden this morning. I almost fell over from the rush of its energy that put pressure on my head and whirled through my spine to my feet. I felt myself going down into the earth along with the garden. We were descending to the primordial underworld. When I finally got my bearings I understood what was happening. My garden is transitioning. It is moving toward the Fall. I was experiencing the turning of the earth in a most intimate way.

This garden is a refuge, a place for thought and pleasure. It is a reverent place. It holds my heart and nurtures my spirit. It allows my often earth-greedy hands the chance to feel the world that is beneath our feet from where so much of our sustenance comes. This place also allows my design and magical aesthetics to share the beauty and healing way for anyone who is in need. It holds my sweat lodge as it holds my soul.

And now the time becomes shorter when the days are above and longer when the nights are below. I can sense the tendrils of the coming season undulating in the depth of what we cannot see. They are making their way toward the openness of the surface. They come to claim my flowers, my herbs and my vegetables once again. I can feel the coolness of the furrow down beneath in the gravitas of where the earthworms burrow. It is time for the season to change.

But I must remember that my, as if I really ‘own’ them, plants are reaching toward the earth’s grasp. They want to turn downward and rest and replenish. They are in my charge, so to speak, when the air is warm. Nature has allowed me to be part of this great feast for my eyes and my dinners and every other part of me. It has been an honor to be witness and caretaker to so much. Nature has been generous.

So what is Nature? Nature is not just a tree or a bird flying through the air. Nature is the embodiment of the genuineness of the push of the creative force that encompasses the entire realm of existence. Nature is what enlivens being on all levels. Some would call that force Goddess/God, higher spirit, the great mysterious; but it is this naturalness of being that is the underlying framework of existence. Nature is also what we see and relate to on a physical level. So Nature is twofold. There is, what I will call, the Upper World Nature and the Lower World Nature to borrow Kabbalistic lingo.

Unfortunately, our relationship and understanding of Nature has been devolved by our mechanistic culture that has created a chasm between the body and soul, people and the rest of life. What some may call the supernatural is actually part of Nature. Perhaps we might call it the supra-natural as it seems to be beyond, or above some of our understanding and experiences; but for those who are familiar with these worlds, there is nothing more natural than feeling energy or sitting with a spirit.

Nature, on both levels, is the unifying force of the cosmos. We are not separate from ‘It’. We can communicate with nature. Although we have a different mode of communication, we can learn nature-speak, or might we call this spirit or deva–speak or even complete-speak which will create wholeness and connection. This will help us live comprehensively fulfilled lives as it will change and heal our way of relating to each other and the world.

Nature expresses, nature does not judge, nature is neutral, nature is itself, nature is connected and cannot thrive without those connections being intact, nature attracts and repels. These are all qualities that comprise an ideal human ecosystem which is a part of Nature as well. Nature is and holds a quality that Rudolph Otto called the ‘numinous’.

As there is a numinous spark in each of us, there is a numinous spark in each stone. The numinous speaks each time that feet imprint on the bare dirt road. Its impression guides the connection between the numinous in earth and the numinous in us. The spiritual Higher Nature aspect of the Great Mysterious, the Divine, in the souls of both; coupled with the Lower Nature that we hold, calls forth the numinous of spirit that is creation. It encircles from the inside out and from the outside in. This is the energetic dance, the energetic webstring of life. This is the juncture of joining.

And so I sit with the pansies, smell my roses and gather my herbs. These are the end of the season. I feel thankful for our time spent and know they will return; but my eyes well up despite this. It is time to say goodbye as they begin to fade. There will be no more new growth this season; for these are my lastlings.