I have arrived! I am at my cabin in Northern Canada where I will spend the next few weeks writing manuals for the Sanctuary’s brand new Nature and Healing programme. Where I am is a wild space. And no, I do not mean that I am feeling out of control- well at least not all of the time. 😉 What I mean is that looking out the window, as I type these words, I see a tangle of forest that goes on as far as the eye can see. When I open my door, the ground is soft, the mosquitoes are mighty and the smell of sun soaked pine fills my nostrils.
While there is a natural balance to this wild space, it is very much untamed and unmanaged. Us cabin dwellers try to control a small patch that surrounds our shelters so that we can feel safe, organized and I imagine somewhat civilized. However, just beyond our imposed clearings, the land is unplanned, undisturbed, and despite our need to ‘civilize’ , it regulates itself and hold its own order (with a lot less effort!).
This gets me thinking about our minds and how if we can get out of own way, they too have the potential to self- regulate and settle into their natural state of peaceful stillness. This peace lies just beneath the surface of our need to control, make sense of and organise. However, we can feel strong resistances and a desire for things to be a certain way which pulls us into involvement and maybe even complicating things more than we need to (just like our cleared spaces around the cabin). Moreover with societal pressures to achieve, conform and obtain, our minds can be stretched out of balance and become unrecognisable. For me, this poses the question of what would happen if we could learn from these wild spaces and surrender to the process of allowing.
Perhaps there is come clue in John O Donhue’s words, “I would love to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding.” His words inspire a sense of un constricted freedom. The river does not need to be told where to go, nor where to eddy. It just flows, navigating obstacles when needed, giving way to opportunity as it arises.
For us humans, this takes a great deal of trust, along with a dollop of openness, curiosity and willingness. And this is where the paradox kicks in. When our minds are open, curious and willing, we gain access to the peaceful stillness that lies just beneath all activity. What lies beneath becomes the self-regulating order that exists in all wild spaces.
This peaceful wilderness is what we move towards when we practice mindful meditation. We attempt to occupy the wild space of stillness in which to be open to and observe and be part of the unfolding flow of life. This is where the delight of surprise lives. And just like the wild forest floor, this is where we fall into balance.
If you would like to practice with me this Tuesday at 10 am, I will be logging on with the Sanctuary to explore what it might be like to touch in with the wildness that exists within each and every one of us.
-Jane
Click below to listen to and download the practice ‘Observing our own inner wilderness’:
My Silent Place 
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