The Red Campion, with its pink petals fusing together into a reddish, ribbed tube, has been quite stunning on the edges of our local woods this Spring. Especially one particular patch saturated with Campion, that catches the early morning sun on my dog-walks.
I had to go and take some photos.
And then some more photos.
It’s funny but I don’t remember seeing or noticing the Red Campion in previous years. Maybe it’s having a bumper year. Probably. But I also think I may have passed it by in former years, without giving it a second glance.
How often do we miss the wood for the trees? Fail to see the extraordinary in the so-called ‘ordinary’?
This morning, as I took communion, I was reminded that Jesus deliberately chose ‘elemental’ things (bread and wine) to serve as ‘sacraments’. The extraordinary in the ordinary. The spiritual in the material. Breaking any division between sacred and secular.
Mindfulness and meditation, whether with a Christian or Buddhist basis, or without any sort of spiritual slant, can help us connect or re-connect with nature and other things and people around us, with God and with ourselves.
Or perhaps rather to (re-)discover the interconnectedness of all things, that was always there. And to notice the wonder of all things.
Thank you, Red Campion, for the reminder.
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You might also be interested in my book: Coming Home for Good (available on Amazon) is autobiographical, describing my journey out of spiritual, psychological and (chosen) physical homelessness into a spiritual, psychological and physical home and a career managing a homeless healthcare service.
Spirit of Nature 