(by Trish Graham, Australia)
My introspection and over thinking can take me to places of darkness. Depression hovers on the horizon of my being. Anxiety has accompanied me for many decades. I have an acute capacity to tune to the deep needs of other people and the deep needs of the Earth and all of Creation. I can be easily overwhelmed. Learning to live with this and not be crippled by it has been a task of my 70 years of life. Learning to live in the present moment was facilitated decades ago by becoming a bird watcher. Being thus tuned has alerted me to the natural world in a myriad of ways so that I notice so much more than birds. Of late I am learning to escape the confines of my skin and practice a ‘being with’ creation in new ways. When I swim in the ocean as I do daily, I am one with the water and the lift of the waves that carry me into huge exhilaration. When I walk on the earth, I am one with her rich fullness through my feet and when the wind touches my skin, I shed that which separates me and the very Life Spirit which is the air that I breathe surges through me and calls me into Life again and again. I do and must hold my faith that Creation far exceeds my tiny human anxieties and hope, for me, is there.