Embracing Nature, Wisdom, and Sacred Spaces — The Nest

March 2025

With spring in the air I have been connecting deeply with visions of nests. In fact, for some time now I have been contemplating the metaphorical significance of the nest.

The nest as shelter

From the moment we enter the world, we seek shelter and the nest conjures that security, warmth, and belonging that deep down we crave. Whether it takes the form of a childhood home, a sacred retreat, or the inner sanctuary of the heart, the nest represents a place of nurture, departure, return, growth, and renewal.

The nest as a symbol of safety and nurturing

In nature as Spring emerges, the nest is a place where life begins, where the vulnerable are nurtured, and where lessons of survival and love are imparted. Birds build nests instinctively, weaving with care those carefully selected items they have gathered into a haven that shelters their young. Are we so different from those fledglings and our need for spaces where we feel protected and held, spaces where we can be our truest selves without fear?

The spiritual dimensions of the nest

Beyond its emotional significance, the nest carries profound spiritual meaning. Mystics have long understood the importance of creating sacred spaces — nests of contemplation, where the heart can commune with the eternal.

As part of my own recent contemplative practice, I took myself to the forest to gather grasses, twigs, ferns, leaves and mosses to weave the nest I felt called to build.

You see, it’s not just the prerogative of birds to build nests.

Those hours spent simply in the act of gathering, and of building and weaving this nest took on a deep spiritual meaning for me and through those moments flowed further understanding of the themes I had been contemplating these last months. In this sense, the nest becomes so much more than simply a place of shelter. It also becomes a portal, a threshold of sorts between the seen and unseen.

Of leaving and returning

One of the paradoxes of the nest is that while it is a place of refuge, it is also a place from which we must at times depart. Growth requires us to leave the comfort of the familiar. Just as fledglings must take flight, so must we at times. As we move through life’s seasons, we may find ourselves taking rest in new nests — new homes, new relationships, new sacred spaces. And perhaps eventually we even feel the call to return to nests of old.

How do we create and maintain our own nests, our own refuges, in a world that increasingly feels transient, chaotic, and unstable?

The answer there lies in intention.

Whether through creating a meditation corner in our home, developing a new daily ritual, sitting next to the fire and sharing stories with a loved one, or perhaps seeking way-finding from a guide, we are all invited to weave together the threads of our own nests.

And let us not forget that the nest always remains more than just a physical space — remembering that a few conscious breaths can always bring us into the quiet sanctuary of the eternal nest that remains forever within.

Your nest here awaits.