Nature is that which happens by itself. This might sound alien, because we all know nothing happens by itself; we're bound, by teaching and daily life, to a universe in which there's no effect without a cause. Nothing comes from nothing.
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images - source: Pixabay
I heard a few years ago, I think it was a speech by Alan Watts, that the Chinese word for "nature" translates to "that which happens by itself." I was immediately charmed by this idea because when you think about it, he and the Chinese are exactly right. When we don't try to dig for reasons why things happen, but just accept that existence, that the universe just happens, suddenly all kinds of things we find normal in our daily lifes aren't so normal anymore.
Without looking for a deeper meaning to existence, but just observing it, you find yourself in a continuously happening universe where everything flows effortlessly from one moment to the next, nothing ever exactly the same as the moment before. Trees grow by themselves. Hearts beat by themselves, The Earth needs no hand spinning around it's axis. When we talk about the "nature" of something, isn't that the same as saying what the thing is by itself? And when you go to bed and really try hard to fall asleep, you keep yourself awake; sleep comes by itself or doesn't come at all. Artists and athletes all know it; when they're "in the zone" they forget to act like them-self and let the art or physical achievement flow out of them-self by itself.
I've written before about how we're caught up in the illusion of expectation, how we're spoon fed the idea that we always have to go one further, reach the next level, climb the social ladder by accumulation of material wealth; this is the epitome of a try-hard existence in which nothing or very little is allowed to just happen, or you forfeit your chance at the next material milestone in life. Our path through life is literally that: a path, a road that leads to a definite, yet ever illusive end-goal. I think it was in the same speech that mr. Watts said how funny he thinks it is that most people seem to live to retire, always saving money for that dreamed final station where they're finally allowed to really live.
So, don't think of your life as a road, but try to think it's like a dance. Like nature, like real life, a dance is a spontaneous thing where you don't first point at a specific spot on the dance-floor where you want to end up. The music's just there, the emotions arrive with the rhythm and sounds, compelling you to move, and as it happens every other dancer is flowing with you without obstructing each other or yourself in exquisite moments of glorious existence. I bid you, in the immortal words of David Bowie: "Let's dance!"
David Bowie - Let's Dance
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