Track Your Life with Boyd Varty - Episodes Tagged with “Nature”

Day 39 - Reflection

Boyd Varty — Sun, 10 May 2020 09:00:00 +0200

A ceremony is a place to remember to remember. As I walk through my last 39 days I have a lot to reflect on. I remember the resistance that arose before leaving home. I remember the anxiety of the first few days when six weeks seemed like an eternity. I must remember to sit with anxiety with compassion. I remember the feeling of a shell being taken off after one week. How do I work with this after I return back? Optimization for me comes out of consistency. I must remember to sometimes just start.

All through the day I intend to reflect on all these moments. In my experience re-entry is its own journey and art form. You have to remember that in change processes we spiral forward. We sometimes go back but on a different rung on the spiral.
The key is to notice yourself, watch yourself and pay attention without judgement. That will create the awareness to shift from.

Our inner world shapes our outer world. Imagination, creativity, enchantment, tracking, storytelling and pattern interruption. Nature is the deepest teacher.

The gratitude I feel for the land here is impossible to put into words. Beauty to the point where I feel overwhelmed. Elephants, rhinos, leopards, starry skies, storms. I will miss the elephants mid-morning arrival at the river. And of course the tree is a love story all of its own. I have been a part of its ecosystem all on my own. This tree has taught me so much. It has been the host of one of the most transformational experiences of my life. In native cultures everything is alive, it is a being and I understand that now. This tree has been a true friend and will continue to be.

In gratitude I also turn to all of you who came along for the ride and sent me notes of support. To be able to do this alone and with you was perfect. We are all connected. We know why we are here. To learn to heal to bring back the new old ways. To have fun and reach out and not let it all be too serious and to remember what living actually is.

What if what we made here is the real world. The most natural scape is the real world. Its just a deep sense of the sacred which makes me reflective. Jesus is often depicted with his eyes open. Buddha is often shown with his eyes closed. In truth we need contemplation in action. No enlightenment has any power unless it is lived.

I am also full of a very simple desire to do the best work I can do towards the transformation of consciousness. Today I am going to run as far as I can. Slowly relishing the feeling of the land under me. I am going to swim in the river and sit by the fire. There is a time to reflect on our reflections and PS its probably good I’m close to the end as I have a tooth that is killing me.

I guess the lasting question is that in a matter of time, all of our lives will go back to normal. What do we want that normal to be? The treehouse is like a nest, my books tarpaulin, clothes and yoga mat is all around me. It’s quiet in the way of nature where the sounds make the silence rather than break it.

Covid has been so hard for so many people but it also gave me a glimpse back in time. This reserve has been an empty Eden and I am Adam. What will it mean in 30 years to have lived with wild animals? Will it all be gone or will be wake up? Would you find it very hard to understand if I said that I’m learning to be at peace with both? Wherever we land, it will be there.

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Day 33 - Sinking In

Boyd Varty — Mon, 04 May 2020 09:00:00 +0200

A lonely day missing people. In a week I will be complete and its starting to stir up the mind. It feels close and creates a bout of anxious immaturity. I want to talk to them now but also I don’t want to leave this tree. I have come to ride the ups and downs of how the mind uses time.

I sit in my chair and listen to the sounds of nature. A kingfisher hitting the water, elephants flapping and nyala browsing. Time to have time, who has that?

Johnny Clegg:
The world is full of strange behavior
And every man has to be his own savior
I know I can make it on my own if I try
But I’m searching for the great heart to stand me by
Underneath the African sky
A great hear to stand me by
I’m searching for the spirit of the great heart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g48_fqX7KJc
https://www.johnnyclegg.com/

Searching for the spirit of the great heart I certainly am. And here when I end up singing to myself I may have found it for a moment.

The river has cleared and I splash for a moment. I don’t hang out too long on account of the many leathery sleeping bags I have seen. On my run I glance to the right and see a herd of giraffes running next to me. Elephants cross the river almost continuously.
How do I go back now? How has what I learnt here shape my life moving forward?

I’m learning to sink in. The tree is teaching me how to put down a root into myself and into this place. This is what I have learnt. I do want to connect people with this. I do want to live with this mind.

In the afternoon I take my bag of rubbish to be collected. Its an absurd looking pile of packaging, coming from the necessity to store and sell food. It was the Egyptians who put food against lock and key. I once read a study about Chimps who got given food which was shared and distributed. They then removed the food and introduced tokens which could be traded and all hell broke loose.

At the most primary psychological level, when you take away food you change everything.

Ghandi was a huge believer in the village because he understood that in shared production of food you could produce enough to be free from colonial rules of survival. I don’t think small food gardens can be underestimated. And surely as markets continue to globalize in a world of radically accelerating uncertainty, you couldn’t do better than a back to basics insurance plan than small decentralized food gardens. Put the gardens at the center of your pocket of light.

The respect I have for natures efficiency has grown exponentially.

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Day 26 - Define Abundance

Boyd Varty — Mon, 27 Apr 2020 09:00:00 +0200

There is a line in the Book of Mormon where a Ugandan women is singing about the Utopia that can be found in Salt Lake City. At first it seems like another comedic line, but it’s actually profound. The women is imagining utopia from her point of reference. We all imagine inside our own frames of reference. The question is what are your friendly warlords?

What is abundance? What is wealth?
Real wealth is not being rushed, stillness, enjoying your food, having places you are excited to explore, a river to swim in, being creatively engaged, quality presence with yourself and others, rest when you want to, freedom from crushing obligations, simplicity, being able to feel, connection to beauty, naps, high levels of energy, health, time, silliness, passion, the opportunity to serve, choices.

I need to think about how I can live towards this truest abundance.

There is a strange thing with success that what is built into it, but with it there is something to lose.

I never met the entrepreneur who said “I think we are big enough now”. We all want to be successful, we all want to get by.

What do you want to provide? House, education food on the table. Then it deepens into presence, time, a joyful life, aliveness and understanding what is really important. How is the way you are living your life teaching those things?

Kids don’t learn what you say, they learn how you are. I guess I’m examining the idea that just because we can we should. What I think I want versus what I actually want.

The real pillars of abundance are stillness, nature and community. I understand that none of this might be making any sense.

What else happens when you get still is that you become aware there are many places in your life where you have not showered yourself in glory. You have to face up to a certain amount of shame in your own behavior that frankly if you keep busy you can hide away. To be still means that you can really revisit those moments. Even if you don’t want to it will come up.

Connect with Boyd Varty:
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