I love learning new words. And this is one I just learned. Friluftsliv (free-loofts-liv) is Norwegian, and it literally means “free air life.” But what it is really trying to convey is a whole philosophy about embracing nature. It is the concept that returning to nature is returning home.
I want to embrace this idea of learning to be present in nature. I believe nature can teach me so much about myself, and about life, and about God. I want to truly learn to find pleasure in feeling the sun on my face, to delight in kicking up some fallen leaves, to revel in listening to the birds sing, to bask in the peace of a wooded mountainside, and to look at a flower and understand why God created it.
In the modern world, it is so easy to become very distant from nature. I forget how to live with nature, how to be at home in my natural habitat, the one God created. I forget how to grow my own food. I forget how to hunt and gather. I forget how to create out of what is given. I have much to learn!
Nature can teach me to stop what I’m doing and just be there. Nature can show me how I am connected to the whole universe. Nature can teach me about beauty, life and death, resurrection, order, imperfection, and goodness. Nature will always point me to the Creator.
There are many ways in which I can begin to savor the outdoors again. Take a nap outside. Go camping. Go on a hike. Take photos. Go outside to pray and meditate. Play in a creek. Play in the leaves. Play in the snow. Walk in the grass in my bare feet. Dance in the moonlight. Lay down to watch the clouds, or the stars. Walk by the ocean. Walk by a river. Walk in a meadow.
“He rejoiced in all the works of the hands of the Lord and saw behind things pleasant to behold their life-giving reason and cause. In beautiful things he saw Beauty itself; all things were to him good.” ~Thomas of Celano
“Watch that child kneeling in the grass! He has found one of his silent and motionless brothers, with God’s clothing upon it, God’s thought in its face.” ~George MacDonald
“God is everywhere!” ~The Baltimore Catechism
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