I ask all blessings,
I ask them with reverence,
of my mother earth,
of the sky, moon, and sun.
I am old age: the essence of life,
I am the source of all happiness.
All is peaceful, all in beauty
all in harmony, all in joy.
Navajo Wisdom
Treeless. Wherever I visit a part of the world, I feel most at home in landscapes, particularly ones that are naturally open and spacious with few trees and buildings. Within the last month, my journeys have taken me above the tree line to a volcano referred to by the indigenous people as “the one who touches the sky.” And, currently, my travel has brought me to Orkney, a group of islands off the northern coast of Scotland.
There is something about this openness that brings a raw awareness of the pure beauty of seeming nothingness. Initially, for my eyes, it might feel barren or even boring. My eyes are used to searching and helping me navigate in the treed and more populated environment where I live. Yet, the pure expanse of simply land and sky soon settles their attempts to discover entertaining movements within the clouds or brushes and grasses. It is as though my eyes find that their habit of “looking” is nearly useless, but there is another way of seeing.
Perhaps that way of seeing is not seeing; that is, just being part of the vastness, or being the vastness itself. Within that seeing, the eyes sense there is nothing to grasp or cling to, and they can simply rest within the quiet, harmonic beauty of the infinite. If they were to search for as far as they could see, my eyes would return again and again to infinity. There, they would re-discover the source of their capacity to see and know that all that is to be seen is seen within one glimpse.
Within that one glimpse, everything is there. There is wholeness, connectedness and a contented sense of enough-ness where separateness and striving have no power. This view offers the foundation for reviving the true “c”s – community, compassion, and creativity. Ironically, we live within this ageless view – it is held within the sky, moon, sun, earth and all of the universe. It is in every direction and in the place where all the directions meet – in the center of our chest, our heart-center. Indigenous people around this planet have tended the flame of this view even in the face of oppression and attempts of extermination by those who instead uphold a different set of “c”s – competitiveness, coldness, and conquering.
The stillness of the horizon where the sky and the earth meet offers me a chance to nourish that eternal view where there is belonging among everyone and everything, and to recover a sense of the underlying essence of harmonic beauty. Admittedly, a human-centric view and acculturation thrives in today’s, times making it difficult to connect with, or even imagine, this long-standing view. Yet, these landscapes give me hope. They hold the possibility of seeing beyond the moment into the fullness of all time. They inspire me to live with more reverence for the vastness in all. I hope you will join me.
Practice
This practice supports awareness of wholeness
Prepare —
- Begin either seated or standing.
- Clear your space for the next ten minutes.
- Physical – move your digital devices, including smart watches, to another room. If you are using one for following this practice, please turn it to airplane mode.
- Note: you might pause and notice any discomfort you have with taking ten minutes away from being digitally available.
- Body – scan through your body, and notice how it is feeling and how you might support it. Pause and listen, then follow your instincts to stretch, shake, contract, and/or move your body.
- This might be easiest if you begin with your feet and scan upward through your legs and torso, then from your fingertips upward through your arms and neck, and lastly around the sphere of your head, including your face. Then, check in again.
- Breath – Once you have scanned through your body, gently invite awareness of your breathing. If comfortable, notice what you notice – the movement within your torso – sides, front and back – associated with breathing, the sound of the breath, the length of your inhale or exhale, and/or any feelings connected to breathing. `
Practice —
- Find a comfortable seated position.
- Rub your palms together until you feel some warmth in your fingertips. Then:
- with your fingertips of both hands, gently and slowly touch the outer edges of your nose, then your lips, eyelids, cheeks and your ears.
- cross your hands across your chest and gently touch each shoulder with the opposite hand.
- with the fingertips of one hand, touch your navel area, then top of your head and your heart-center.
- Then, allow your hands to relax wherever they are comfortable, e.g., on your thighs or in your lap.
- If comfortable, close your eyes or keep them in a soft gaze.
- Imagine that the small muscles around and at the back of your eyes are able to relax. Invite a similar feeling with your inner ear, your gums, tongue and the center of your throat.
- Note: This is a subtle “invitation” for letting go of hidden tension in these sensory organs and inviting easefulness. Please, no self-judgement around this invitation.
- Place your hands over your heart – perhaps one hand over the other or fingertips and base of palms together.
- If comfortable, bow your head slightly and imagine your gaze is flowing from the back of your eyes down the back of your skull and pouring from the back of your body into your heart-center. Imagine your breath is arising and returning from and into your heart-center. Invite a sense of your body quietly breathing in community with the trees and all living beings.
Transition back into your day —
- Continue as long as is comfortable for you to be held within the belongingness of the collective breath.
- Then, gently open your eyes and very slowly look around. Perhaps, invite awareness of the underlying grace of quiet, harmonious beauty upholding the continuance of life.
- When you are ready, return to your day.
This poem appears in Mala of the Heart: 108 Sacred Poems, page Page 21, edited by Ravi Nathwani and Kate Vogt and published by New World Library. H E A R T H is posted each new and full moon. Kate Vogt©2025.
