Where is Eden?

To me “Eden” is anywhere where the natural and spiritual world merges to uncover our highest potential. It is a place that is not governed by physical obsessions or material possessions. It is a heavenly place, a blissful place – a place where we can actually feel our soul and hear our heart.

Each one of us has our own “Eden” – and just as each and every garden grows, matures, changes, and evolves – our “Eden” can change throughout our existence as well.

My Journey to Eden

A few months ago, I started to entertain the idea of selling off most of our stuff and leaving the quaint and comfortable life of the suburbs for a more natural lifestyle. I was getting a call from Mother Nature, and I couldn’t refuse her call.

As time progressed, that call got stronger and stronger. This is not to say that I did not throughout this time entertain my share of doubts and questions. The “Ego” after all is not a fan of radical change, especially change that will alter, completely at times, what it knows about itself.

When I surrendered my heart and soul and kept the noisy world and all of its fears and doubts out, I was sure of what I needed and wanted to do.

In a span of not even one month, my husband and I have sold our house, one of our two cars, most of our furniture, and some of our clothes. We were minimalists, to begin with, so this sort of purging felt almost eerie, and yet so deliciously good and freeing.

I have embarked on a journey that has already begun to completely change me and my life and will only continue to do so even more.

My Eden

So where is “my Eden”? I have to tell you, I am completely humbled and inspired by Robin for her life in the Rainforests and have seriously considered such an experience myself. My “Eden” currently, however, will be in a semi-remote place in a beautiful forest, off of a lake in Ontario.

There is something within my inner being that is calling me to experience the stillness, beauty, and awe of life in nature. For the past few years, my utmost love for nature, our environment, and this Earth has been growing, and today I am reaping those changes in a profound way. And don’t get me wrong, I will still have a house, but it will be a very different house, in a very different place. I will still visit cities, but this is where my roots will be – at least for now.

I want to drink fresh, mountain spring water and grow my own vegetables. I want to wake up to the birds and nothing but the birds each morning. I want to melt with the water, and dance under the open sky. I want to talk to the trees and play with the chipmunks. I want to experience walking barefoot if only on the grassy part around my home, to feel Gaia’s touch beneath me. I want to be mesmerized by the night sky, full of more stars than perhaps grains of sand in this world. I want to feel the elements of air, fire, water, and Earth on a regular basis.

Reflection Exercise

How about you: Where is your Eden? What life-altering changes have you perhaps considered or made, and who or what inspired you to do so?

I invite you to answer the questions above for yourself as part of a journaling exercise.