by Connie Habash | Feb 13, 2018 | Love, Nature, Source, Valentine's Day
Yeah, I know. Valentine’s day is this week. How do you feel about it?
Do you feel loved? Do you have someone that you love? Do you appreciate this day to express that love, or does this day trigger painful emotions?
I think there are as many reactions to Valentine’s day as there are the spectrum of emotions. I personally appreciate the opportunity to express love and care for others. But I also don’t like the expectations and commercial aspect of “Valentine’s Day”.
And I don’t think this is about someone else – I think this day could be turned towards finding love wherever you are, inside of you. Because love isn’t limited to a person, a place, or a thing. Love is infinite, unlimited, and ever present. Love is the Divine, and it’s already within you.
by Connie Habash | Jun 12, 2017 | Aliveness, Animals, Appreciation, Beauty, Being, Comparison, Nature, Presence
Every morning, shortly after I wake, I do my “sit-spot” practice outside in our front yard. This is a practice of simply sitting and being present with everything in nature. It’s a beautiful way to begin my day with the freshness of the morning air, the sun beginning to peek through the leaves, the squirrels racing up and down the oak trees, and most of all, the birdsong.
I relish hearing the variety of birds in our neighborhood. On those beautiful, bright, sunny mornings it is pure delight to sit by our grassy patch and hear a bird calling from the tall redwood tree 5 houses down to the right, and to hear the high-pitched clicking sound of a hummingbird as it zooms in for a drink from our Mexican sage.
This morning, however, was quite different than the others for the last couple of months. It was dense with cloud-cover, and rain was expected. For California in June, this is rare. With ordinary eyes, one might wake up, see the dismal looking skies, and decide to just pull the covers over the head and go back to sleep. A dreary, cloudy day.
by Connie Habash | Jun 5, 2016 | Animals, Attachment, Awareness, Embodiment, Grounded, Nature, Paradox
Last month, I led a spiritual retreat at an idyllic farm, tucked into a secluded valley in Half Moon Bay, California. The focus of our day together was embodiment – being fully present, centered, grounded, and aware in our bodies and connected with the Earth.
In the afternoon, we immersed in a practice called Sit Spot; sitting outdoors, quiet and still, taking in whatever we experience from nature.
I sat on the edge of a field, facing some trees and the rising slope of a hill behind them. There was a gentle breeze, and my gaze lifted up to the clouds floating by. High in the sky, almost at the height of the clouds, I saw a hawk. It was slowly gliding in circles on the currents of air, as hawks often do. I couldn’t stop looking at it as it drifted higher and higher, further and further away over the distant hills until it was just a speck, and then disappeared from my view.
It struck me as an interesting contrast to the idea of embodiment – floating up higher and higher into the clouds, far above the earth, rather than deeply rooted in the soil, as we had much of the retreat.
by Connie Habash | Sep 5, 2014 | Appreciation, Beauty, Being, Connection, Delight, Heart, Nature
This summer, my daughter and I shared an extraordinary week-long camping experience. There’s not a lot of words yet for what I feel. I can only offer feelings from my heart. The heart speaks in non-verbal ways – how to communicate that in a blog?
by Connie Habash | Mar 27, 2014 | Awareness, Beauty, Being, Connection, Delight, Grounded, Mindfulness, Nature, Serendipity, Uncategorized
I love to sit in my backyard – just taking in whatever I see, hear, and feel. This practice is called the “sit-spot” – a technique used by naturalists to immerse themselves in the experience of a chosen location in nature, to get to know the flora and fauna in a much more intimate way.
My eyes captured a bird, hopping on the ground. It was clearly an insect eater – small, with a long, pointed beak. I wanted it to come closer, but it slipped through the lattice work of the fence to my neighbor’s yard. I decided that if I wanted to know this bird better, why not be like a bird?
