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The Guru Finds Nature in the City
October 6th, 2004
By Christopher Herz
The Health Guru / eCureMe LIFE
As you know, The Guru lives here in Los Angeles, and although there is a large
amount of sunshine, there is no real wild life, unless you count what comes pouring
out of the clubs every Friday and Saturday night.
A while ago, I did an article on Thoreau and his getting away into the countryside.
While those old philosophies may have indeed been on point back then, using old
philosophies in the modern world sometimes makes for a nasty fit.
I was in need of some nature but, well, like all of you, your Guru doesn’t
have the time to go and build himself a log cabin and contemplate the meaning of
life.
As with most problems, if you create a solution that works for you, those same
problems may disappear. So I set out to find peace in nature while still within
the confines of the relentless city.
So here is the Guru’s guide to making the city a more natural place to live.
There is always, always, a night time sky. While the stars may not blanket the
night like those of the Rembrandt one’s in the outer areas of the world,
their powers still exist. To find them, you need to leave the streets and head
to the roof tops, which have always been the working person’s observatory
to the world.
Bring a towel or blanket or your Honey up with you and stare up into the sky in
silence. Play with the shapes the stars make and feel like you are an ancient
map maker of the heavens exploring a new sector of the universe. This is how
worlds unfold, even if they are in your mind.
Other people may call these options.
After you are finished star mapping, try going for a walk. Now, I know, you have
walked from place to place in the city, but usually there is some destination
which you are striving to get to. You have a predetermined focus.
Try finding your focus while looking for nothing. Walking is great for that.
Go on a walk and look at everything around you as if you are on a safari.
Look at how the people are interacting with one another. Realize that everyone
are just animals sniffing each other’s butts to see if everything is cool.
Now, please don’t go around sniffing butts and telling people that your
Guru has told you do so. We are being figurative my friends.
Find nature where you think there may none. In the crack of the sidewalk, and
entire nation of ants and beetles exists with or without your knowledge of it.
Knowing that it is there may make you feel some escape from the city.
Being part of nature is as important as observing it. True.
Birds. No, not the Pigeons who shuffle around like crack necks looking for a
morsel of yummy, although they are part of the whole show, but birds that soar
high above your heads each day riding on currents from around the globe.
Up on the telephone wires, sitting between thrown up tennis shoes, a society
that lives with a trait all humans envy exists without much ballyhoo (first
time I’ve ever used that word). Take a look at them. Give them a story
and imagine that you are traveling with them on their next adventure.
You need to be creative here people - we are creating reality.
If you wanted it painted all nice with perfect colors, then go to Disneyland.
Life does not come like it is shown on television.
Finally, don’t forget about the trees. You’ve read The Giving Tree.
You know, about the tree who gives everything to the little boy until there is
nothing but a stump? Well, don’t do that. When’s the last time you
sat under a tree and felt the bark against the upper of your back? Had the wind
move at the slightest movement of the tree branch? Rubbed your forefinger over
the ruff belly of a new leaf knowing that it is only a replacement for last
summer’s model? And, with autumn coming on, it is a perfect time to pick
up an old fallen friend and hold its brittle body, knowing, knowing that nature
is always within your reach.
Enjoy the coming of Fall.
Peace.
H.G.
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