Hawaii_Creek, “Nature,” Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.
I frequently suggest to others something I call a square foot meditation—sitting quietly in one spot for a good long time, simply observing, while holding the awareness that everything seen is sacred.

During the past few days, while on a personal camping retreat in the mountains of Arkansas, I became convinced that it would take many lifetimes to get ten feet down a trail if one gave such attention to everything in view in every square foot.

The density of life—overlapping, entwining, emerging and decaying—is so intense that I am completely filled up with awareness of creation’s awesome diversity and rich complexity.

The sounds of cascading water, the touch of the velvety texture of deep green moss, the sight of every imaginable angle and surface of boulder and rock, the felt presence of unseen ancient ancestors in the pictographs on the walls of a huge cave, the incessant subtle movement of everything including the gentle wind, the drift of golden leaves falling, the flutter of wings just overhead, the three uncautious deer near the campsite at dawn, the blue-hazed vistas mingling with crimson sunsets seen from bluffside overlooks, and on and on and on.

My brief time in Arkansas has been a successful time of withdrawal and renewal. I am grateful as I head down the mountain to resume the wonders and responsibilities of everyday life, reminded that such alive sacredness is everywhere, always, in every square foot wherever I am.

Image Credit: Hawaii_Creek.jpg , “Nature,” Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.