1st August 2026
I had been reading about an Indian Mystic Anandamayi Ma and Bhakti Yoga , it just came by me so i became curious about her. I realised that my spiritual path is my own path and not to be contaminated by dogma and other peoples words. My path is wordless.
I realised similarities of my path with devotion , although in Bhakti Yoga one usually devotes to a God, like Shiva , my devotion is to nature. That god is revealed in nature, that its sacred and also the nature of myself is revealed through painting and connecting deeply with my photography and deep inquiry into what is in front of me. The Mantra is within nature, bird song , insects buzzing and the wind chiming the leaves.
Another interesting observation i made was the similarities between Rumi and his Surfism devotion to nature and Bhakti Yoga devotion as they are both meant to connect to the divine through devotion and my thoughts were it all has a shared source and has the same path of love.
I the same thoughts were letting go of the seeking as it separates you from consciousness as it resides within you already. This teaching was fundamental to my mental resilience coaching training , our wellbeing is innate within us and our attachments cover up the sun which shines within us.
People believe they experience life through words but that constant narrative is not them but a habit of insecurity driven through their psychological system from an early age. Thats why people need to know what paintings mean through words rather than just experiencing it.
There is something deeper which i cannot explain when i walk through nature where everything feels so alive and real , it is the same feeling i have when i paint.
Bakethin Nature Reserve
Last year i wrote about the waves of colour through the reserve but this year i have noticed more mixtures of colours and that is because our attention creates our reality. Nature designs itself to pull the attention towards them in order to flourish and sustain life and whats predominant caught my attention more just like a bee is drawn to particular plants.
With 10 or so months of working on widening my attention through meditation and zooming out whilst in nature i have noticed more and more. The place feels more vibrant as i have brought it all into my attention.
This has helped me notice more and the more i see the more deeper my connection has become to it. More detail , more colours and more textures come alive which create a strange sense within me that i cannot put into words. It is like i am entering a magical world but in reality i am moving out from a human created reality into the truth.
I could not tell a lie that within the wooded areas at this time of year is plagued with masses of midges in which quickly congregate very quickly and is not very pleasant. But , some of the lovely Hard Ferns have fully unfolded and i think they are so beautiful in form. They just missed being destroyed by Forestry England logging and i have not found any other here. I am very happy to find them and suffer being bitten for a short while. A little suffering to experience such wonder rewards you with something so graceful and elegant in your experience.
In the Wild , Painting
The symbols you see
in nature are within you
and when you create they
emerge from you.
christopher evans
Forms in Kileder Forest : Watercolour on 56 × 76 cm Bockingford Watercolour Paper
Hareshaw Linn
When i lived in Manchester , where i was born , we called them Blackberries but in North Yorkshire people called them Brambles i kind of call them both now , i am unsure what people of Northumberland call them. Just look at their beauty and then later in Autumn they will be full of delicious healing berries , no wonder they are sacred.
When in abundance celebrate and honour the abundance by being abundant yourself. My abundance is taking lots of photographs of the same thing and finding nuances of colours and form , seeing them in different stages and getting to know them through being with them.
Make joy your abundance , make your summer time more abundant and get up at first sunlight and feel that freshness of a new day. Let the sunshine stream through your window and richness of life knock on your door. Go for a walk and return with a clump of wild flowers and grasses so that within your home knows abundance too.
Go seek goodness , find some un-ripened berries forming , an unopened flower and feel its potential of life . Take that potential and gift its goodness to other people as natures reciprocity as thats what brings it joy. It may just be a smile or a kind gesture !
Bull Crag Peninsular
I completely missed the Horse Chestnuts last year and i so love them in their present form with that mossy green and alien like tentacles feeling its way which will eventually be small spikes on vibrant green husks.
The tree didn’t come to the UK until 17th century from Turkey but soon after children devised the game of conkers. It is believed carrying 3 conkers in your pocket will bring you luck and keeping in a corner of a room will repel spiders but i have not found this a case , but in my house spiders are given names and are welcome.
I had not realised that there are quite a few varieties of thistle which i need to begin learning about. My mosh pit of punk rockers “Knapweed” are on their way which are also a thistle family. I am mesmerised by the variances in lilac and purples that nature has created and i am working on how this feels as a painting.
You cannot get around the peninsular without sections of the woodlands which for me anyway gives respite from the vibrancy , a little cooling off and re-set the mind to silent mode. From moment to moment a little clump of foxgloves points the way and they look and feel so differently in solitude against a backdrop of huge trees. They have this quiet confidence about them and striking out alone from the busy verges just because they can.
Also , the Bramble has the same ability to thrive in other places in which a solitary bramble flower radiates its love on a mossy tree stump.
