How to Connect with Your True Nature

One of the best feelings is when a friend recognizes your true nature - through a glance, a compliment, a gift, or a photograph - letting you know you are truly seen.

A dear friend snapped the above photo, and I realized afterward that I am completely and utterly myself here, no pretenses. This shot feels like a window into the "real me."

Our creativity needs us to know and recognize our true selves.

When are you most authentic? What is it you are really about?  With whom do you let your hair down?

Where do you recognize your true nature?

I take nature breaks every week, spending time in the beauty and silence of Creation. In the past year I've climbed and explored mountains, followed abandoned trails, crept behind waterfalls, paused inside of caves, scrabbled up rocky hillsides, pitched my tent in snow or along the beach.

Last month, I backpacked 70 miles of the Lost Coast of California, where Highway 101 was diverted  from the rugged coastline, allowing pristine wilderness to remain. It is a place without cars or Starbucks shops, where pelicans fly with their wonderful wing-heaving grace, where, day by day, Redwoods add years to their centuries-old lives.

It was yet another reminder that being in nature helps me nourish and understand my nature and deepens my creativity. Indeed, I'm interconnected with the natural world.

I believe, in fact, that we all are. And I believe that nature adventures can enrich and inspire and heal us.

I've just begun a wonderful collaboration with Michelle Fox, owner of TreeSong, a nature awareness and retreat center at the edge of the Columbia Gorge in Washington State.  We'll be bringing you creative offerings that will nourish your writing life as well as your inner and outer nature.

I can't wait to bring you along this trail with me! Together we'll see who we really are.

I'd love to share Lost Coast photos with you.