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Seeing My True Self in the Mirror of John Muir

4/8/2016

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"I will fuse in spirit skies. I will touch naked God . . ."

"Nature is a flood, and we are all in it."

John Muir

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Since we as human beings have our identity rooted naturally in relationship, each of us needs some kind of Other to serve as a steady mirror in which to see our own true self.

In the midst of my current work-related challenges, I am reminded - as I was in an especially vivid manner last night - that the exuberant personality and Nature writings of John Muir have been a major mirror for me ever since elementary school, when I first encountered "Stickeen" in a third-grade reader.

In fact, I have a daily practice whereby I repeat as a sort of mantra the two passages quoted above throughout the day. I alternate back and forth between seeing all people, events and things in their transcendent spaciousness and also in their immanent flow - in Father Sky and Mother Earth, in the sacred masculine and feminine presences that indwell every last one of us in completely unique and one-of-a-kind combinations. In so doing, I find liberation from the claustrophobic tightness that I as a crazy human being am so good at manufacturing.

Yesterday, I received an added boost when Muir Woods National Monument near San Francisco ordered ten more copies of my book, "The Contemplative John Muir." I will send them off in a few days with relish!


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Photos: The Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the San Luis Valley, Great Sand Dunes National Park, and Medano Creek, CO, April 2-3, 2016
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For Spiritual Direction or Workshops, please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ 

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    Stephen Hatch, M.A. is a spiritual teacher and photographer from Fort Collins, Colorado.  His approach is contemplative, inter-spiritual, and Earth-based.

    For posts from my previous blog, please go here.

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