Perched on a sandstone outcrop, I gaze out at an expanse of rugged, desert magnificence: sheer, red sandstone cliffs atop of a dark stratum of granite. It’s midday in mid-March and the desert is just starting to green up. An occasional breeze cools the sweat under my straw hat. It’s a gentle 70 degrees. I receive spring with open, hungry arms as I look on into the pure, unadulterated Colorado Blue Sky.
I’m doing “playwork” prescribed by my Somatic Wilderness Therapy class. The playwork consists of understanding what resonates and what is dissonant, what draws me in and what wisdom is out here for me. Compliantly, I look around and list what I find dissonant – the lifeless gray shale in the ravine and skeletons of deciduous shrubs.
And then list what resonates:
red cliffs, pinions, the granitic layer, and the outrageously gorgeous Colorado Blue Sky
And the Blue of the sky sticks with me. My eyes seep into the endlessness of Blue and it gently shares itself back to me, anointing my eyes. White ruffled clouds float on by, dampening Blue and then revealing Blue.
Blue swells down into my heart, expanding it.
I ask Blue what wisdom it has for me.
After some time, surprisingly I hear:
Blue is always here
Weather comes and weather goes, but Blue never leaves.
I let this soak in and I become curious. How is this wisdom relevant?
Soon, I see the relationship: Blue is our truest essence – or Self. And weather is like our emotions.
Our emotions come and go. But Self is always there.
Bonus Wilderness Therapy Exercise -
1. Find a place either in in nature or find something natural in your home. Although being in nature would be helpful for this exercise, if being in nature is not an option, you can do this exercise looking through a window or even by having anything natural, such as a plant or a rock or something wooden.
2. Spend sometime with nature or the natural object. What do you see, hear, smell, or touch?
3. Ask what resonates and what is dissonant.
4. Notice what draws you in. Focus on what draws you in.
5. Spend time meditating on what has drawn you in.
6. For whatever has drawn you in, ask what wisdom it has for you. If you listen closely, there will be a message. Trust your gut! Don’t second guess yourself or let the skeptical part of you discount this exercise.
P.S. I am learning these wilderness therapy exercises through a class, Somatic Wilderness Therapy taught by Katie Asmus of the Wilderness Therapy Institute
