The Non-Ordinary – Part V: Connecting With Animals – As a Practice

A Sense of the Sacred

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand,” so said Albert Einstein. He also said “We can’t solve problems using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Since we are living in unprecedented times we need unprecedented insights.

Connecting with the non-ordinary is one way to generate this kind of imaginative thinking. The instinctual world, the world of animals, in particular can provide a threshold into creativity. There’s an essential part of our being that is instinctual. Unfortunately we have, in large part, lost touch with that because of our immersion into a barrage of the mechanistic and our over-dependence on technology. How do we begin to bridge the gap that exists between the 21st century self and the instinctual, imaginative self? How do we cross over into the creative space we need to surpass the limits we face?

We would be ill advised to try to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps into the instinctual, imaginative realm. John O’Donohue warns in his book, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom, that to try to beat self into submission is counter-productive. It does violence to the soul. Rather, he suggests we use mindfulness to find the inner rhythm that resides within the soul of our unique self, and like jumping rope, simply find the timing and jump in.

There are some mindfulness tools to help us find the rhythm. The mindful practice of awareness can help us sharpen our perception in our own internal world and in the world around us. Internal awareness, finding our own inner rhythm, intentionally building a bridge to the world of the non-ordinary is challenging. But slowing down and quieting ourselves is a good starting place. It’s not a far journey from there to the place where we can move beyond mere enjoyment of our surroundings into a more intimate awareness that is marked by deep respect and a sense of dignity towards non-human inhabitants of our world.

Our relationship with nature is enhanced not only by cultivating a quiet solitude, but also by simple things like wandering and curiosity.

In his book Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche, Bill Plotkin suggests wandering as an effective way to connect with the non-ordinary. He speaks of wandering about in nature like a curious child, and maintaining a frame of mind that is full of wonder and openness. Nature has the capacity to act as a mirror revealing deep and forgotten parts of who we are. Wandering about, allowing ourselves to be “lost” – where everything familiar is out of reach, these things can be transformational.

Our bridge to the non-ordinary also returns us back again to our everyday world, to our workplace and other environments that can often produce stress. How do we blend these non-ordinary experiences with our ordinary life in a practical way.

The practices of awareness, solitude, curiosity and wandering all strengthen our relational muscles. Recognizing the dignity of and practicing respect for a hawk in flight or a doe hiding in the woods with her offspring is not difficult for us. Truly engaging the encounter with a sense of the sacred takes us to another level. Making this “sense of the sacred” a practice creates new pathways that carry over into every part of our lives.

When was the last time you were “lost” in nature?

Writing Prompt for the Week: A Sense of the Sacred