You are sitting in the middle of a field. There is lush green grass all about you, with a generous scattering of bright yellow buttercups. Some distance behind you, and continuing way off to your left, a wooden rail fence, with other fields beyond it, stretches off to another distant fence, beyond which are more fields leading to the foothills of the mountains which you can see in the far distance.
A very light breeze ruffles the top of the grass and you can feel the wind's gentleness as it brushes your face. Crickets chirrup in the grass and, from the trees beyond the hedgerow, you can hear the occasional song of a bird. You feel contented; you feel at peace.
A swallow swoops down and soars low across the field not twenty feet in front of you. He wings up and away over the trees towards the distant mountains. A grasshopper lands on your knee, then almost immediately is gone again.
You get to your feet and stroll leisurely through the grass, parallel to the hedgerow. Your feet are bare and the grass lightly tickles them as you move along. You walk over to your right till you are close beside the hedge, then advance along it.
Reaching out your hand as you walk, you gently brush the leaves; just catching them with your fingertips as you move along. There is a slight rise in the ground ahead of you and off to the left. You leave the hedgerow and move lightly up the hillock to stand where you can gaze about you at all the beauty that surrounds you.
Seemingly coming all the way from the distant mountains, the breeze you felt earlier is now more steady and you feel it on your face and arms. It gently ruffles the tops of the grass and causes buttercups to nod their golden heads. You stand on the hillock with your legs spread wide and slowly raise up your arms towards the sky. As you raise them, you breathe in deeply. You hold the breath for a moment, then gradually release it, bringing your arms back down to shoulder level. As you release the breath you sing out the sound "Ah!" — "A-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-h!"
You hear the sound echo away, rolling across the fields towards the mountains. Very soon the wind returns your call. A brisker breeze springs up and comes rushing across the field towards you. You stand exhilarated, your hands now at your sides. Then, once again, you raise your hands in great arcs as you breathe in deeply. Again you pause, then partially lower them to the louder sound of "A-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-h!"
A second time the wind returns, this time blowing strongly; bending the grass and stirring the hedgerow off to your side. It blows back your hair and feels warm against your cheeks. For the third time you raise your arms to the sky and cry out to the air. "A-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-h!" And for the third time the air replies by sending the strong, rushing wind across the fields, bending the grass before it and swirling up and around your body; tugging your hair back from your face and fluttering the robes that you wear.
As the wind dies you allow your arms to fall to your sides and stand, with head bowed, in the warmth of the sun. Breathing regularly but deeply, you feel the strength of the sun as it shines down upon you from out of the cloudless blue sky. Slowly you lift your face, with eyes closed, and bask in the radiance that encompasses you. You breathe in deeply, sensing the cleansing fire of the sun advancing through your body, cleansing and purifying. As you breathe, you feel the vitality building within you, fed by those timeless flames.
You bring your hands up, together, to your chest, cupping them as though holding the very orb of the sun. You continue raising them, up to your face then on up high above your head. With palms open and upward, you spread your arms and reach up, absorbing the sun's rays into your body, this time through your hands and down through your arms. Feel the energies rippling down through your body, down through your legs, all the way to your toes. Feel the fire within you. Feel the fire.
Now you lower your arms and, turning back towards the hedgerow, you leave the hillock and continue on along the side of the field. As you walk you become aware of a new sound — the sound of a running stream. A tinkling of the waters rushing over and around pebbles and small stones reaches your ears and draws you forward. You reach the end of the hedgerow and see a small wood set back behind it. From out between the trees runs the stream, bubbling and bustling on its way to it knows not where. It curves out and around, to rush off and disappear from view on the far side of the hedgerow you followed.
You drop down to your knees and reach forward a hand to feel the water. It is cold, yet not so cold as to turn you away. The rushing water murmurs protest at the new obstacle and bubbles around and between your fingers, eager to be on its way. You smile and slip the other hand in beside the first. You wriggle your fingers and rejoice in the invigorating coolness of the water. You splash your face and feel the cold droplets trickle down your neck. It is refreshing and energizing. You cup your hands and raise a human grail of divine essence from the stream. You bend and plunge your face into it, to celebrate a catharsis of the flesh and of the spirit. The water refreshes, cleanses and purifies. It is a gift; a freely given pleasure. You sigh a long sigh of contentment.
Rising to your feet again, you move on along the edge of the trees until you reach the corner of a large, ploughed field that opens out to the left. The soil is newly turned and the scent of it is heavy in the air. You walk out towards the center of the field, breathing deeply and feeling the good clean dirt of the earth between your toes as you walk.
When you finally reach the middle of the ploughed field, you stoop down and sweep up two handfuls of the rich, dark brown earth. It feels good; it communicates a kinship of nature. You feel a "grounding and centering" of your body, through your feet, into the earth. It is a sense of coming home, or reaching that which you have long sought.
You lie down on the earth, between the furrows, eyes closed and face towards the sky. You feel the gentle breeze blowing over you and luxuriate in the warmth of the sun. Away in the distance you can just make out the tinkling of the stream as you absorb the energies of the earth. Your spirit soars and rejoices. And, in so doing, you have touched of all the elements.