Cultivate Your Soul Today

The LORD God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it. // Genesis 2:15

My family would pile into the station wagon every summer to camp at a new National Park. This was back in the days when seatbelts were a suggestion and Car Bingo and Travel Scrabble were our entertainment rather than cell phones and Nintendo Switch. We would cook over a campfire, hike for hours, raft rivers, and play board games until we cocooned into our sleeping bags and tents under the stars.

So it was fitting that after my dad passed away, nature called me to pay a visit. A friend of mine wanted to descend the Grand Canyon and visit Havasupai Falls. After seeing the images, I had to gaze at the turquoise waterfalls and rivers with my own eyes. This land is untouched. The only remaining Pony Express is how the Native Americans receive their mail on this hallowed ground. It is truly paradise in the desert canyon.

One evening I couldn’t sleep, so I stepped outside my tent and lay on the ground, looking up at the expansive and brilliant stars. They felt like a weightless blanket covering me. The air was so pure, the trees so tall. The sound of water flowing nearby calmed my grieving soul. Nature was caring for my soul in a way only God’s creation could.

John Muir, Father of the National Parks, once said, “In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.” God called Adam to cultivate and care for nature, knowing his soul would be cultivated through his actions.

Pope Francis wrote in Laudato Si, “The universe unfolds in God, who fills it completely. Hence, there is a mystical meaning to be found in a leaf, in a mountain trail, in a dewdrop, in a poor person’s face. The ideal is not only to pass from the exterior to the interior to discover the action of God in the soul, but also to discover God in all things” (Paragraph 233).

Like Adam in the Garden of Eden, I was seeking something at the bottom of the Grand Canyon that I could not find in the concrete jungle of Los Angeles. Perhaps, God is calling you to nature to cultivate your soul today. Find your garden of Eden, your Grand Canyon, and pass from the exterior to the interior to discover the actions of God in your soul.