natural woodland

I am standing in some natural woodland. It's not being managed in any concerted way, it's being left to do its own thing. And looking around I see several different types of tree, and in the more open spaces there are grasses, some shrubby little plants. I hear birds. I see butterflies. The place is alive.

And this is what this woodland is reminding me today: how life, given half a chance, will do its own thing. Stuff grows. Plants grow. Animals grow. The whole place is pulsating with life, and a diversity of life. It's so amazing. It's a miracle, really. And standing here, allowing myself to feel this miracle of life all around me, not needing to understand it, not needing to do anything, if I really allow my thoughts to subside, then I begin to remember that I too am part of this miracle that is life. Only this remembering is not in words. It's a felt sense in the body, in the being, that life and growth, this great miracle, is really who I am.