It’s Sunday, a day off. Let’s go spend some time in nature. Take your shoes and socks off. Try it. Put your feet on the grass.

It’s an exhilarating feeling as you walk along. You can feel the slight moisture and the prickliness of the grass. The bees are around everywhere, and in front of us, green. Various shades of green seem to just explode. And what do you feel?

You feel liberated. You feel free. I am a part of this, you say to yourself. I’m happy for this brief moment of right now. Right now.

Now there is a philosophical school that says that this is actually not reality. If you go back to Plato’s Republic, the allegory of the cave, In this particular story, people are chained to stare at a wall. They can’t move, and behind them is a fire, and people are moving around. Therefore, the people that are chained see the images on the wall, and they perceive these images to be reality. But they are not, of course.

They are just images. Now I think most of us would say that this is just not true. I see what really is. But ask yourself, was I born just to go to school to eventually get a job? Good job.

Of course. I want a good job. Find mister and missus right, have several children, save lots of money, retire and die? Is this my mission in life? Gosh, I think not.

Not at all. But I have to stand back and truly analyze what life means, what my life means. Who am I? What is my mission? And where am I going when I leave here?

It takes time to delve into me. Great book to read is Todd Henry’s die empty. Essentially, he posits that the wealthiest place on earth, the wealthiest real estate is a graveyard. Gosh. Because that is where people go with their dreams, the dreams unfulfilled.

And, of course, all of us get caught up in life, don’t we? We get caught up in the day to day affairs of just living. It’s hard to make a living. And money’s a good thing, of course, but it is hard to make money. But if money comes ultimately to represent who I am, it’s a dangerous time because as we saw in the great crash of 1929 in October, many people lost everything, absolutely everything.

And supposedly, there are images of people jumping out of buildings, oh gosh, in New York City. Now would you jump out of a building over money? And I understand doing this over love or things that really matter, but not money. Because, obviously, if you’ve made a lot of money, you should have the skill set to make that money again, shouldn’t you? You shouldn’t take your life away just because of things.

But this requires some insight into the self. And the self, yourself, is an extremely interesting being, isn’t it? Because you really don’t know who you are at the beginning of your life, and slowly your life begins to unfold. This is why when we take some time in nature, we take our shoes and socks off to really feel the earth. We can open the door to the self.

And once you do, of course, it’s a bit dangerous because you can never go back. Never never go back to the old self. But to develop the new self takes time, and you are worth the journey. Remember that. You are worth the journey.

This is why you are here. You are here to undertake that journey. You don’t know where that journey is going to take you, but it will take you somewhere because you have a mission, and it’s up to you to uncover it. So have a wonderful day. You know what they say.

You know what they say. Critical thinking is necessary if you’re going to find out who you are and live a magnificent life, and critical thinking is great. Take care. God bless. Bye bye.

Taking a walk in nature allows us momentarily to free ourselves from the constraints of everyday life.