Bruce Stanley

It's easy to live too far above our own life to notice our baseline. Nature connection can teach us the value of normal. There's a practice in nature connection called the sit spot. You choose a place; a corner of a garden, a park bench, the foot of a particular tree, and you return to it regularly to sit and sense and do nothing except pay attention. At first, you notice the obvious things. Temperature. Birds. Wind. Light through leaves. Smells. But over time, something more interesting...

If you’ve ever had the sense that God was getting your attention through the natural world, then the next question is how to stay with that moment well. Whatever the moment is about to be ... my first advice is NOT to take a photo of it. That bursts the 'moment' bubble. And, if you're a bit more practised than that, don't immediately label it (that's a sunset, or that's achillea millefolium , as can happen in my head). Don't grab its surface meaning or jump to any fast interpretation....

There are plenty of us who would not describe ourselves as conventionally religious and yet still find ourselves carrying deeper questions than ordinary conversations make space for. And, it's harder to find the right person to have those conversations with – someone who will give you their full attention. You might be wanting to talk about meaning, grief, change, prayer, doubt, purpose, forgiveness, identity, calling, or the odd but unmistakable sense that the universe is trying to tell you...