Because nature within us is part of the same great pattern as nature without, to begin the turn-around from "ravaged" land to "reverenced" land, the first step is to take time out to permit our inner patterns to re-align with the greater beings -- the sun and the atmosphere -- which give us our life here on Earth.
The unfathomable mystery of God is that God is a Lover who wants to be loved. God not only says: "You are my Beloved". God also asks: "Do you love me?" and offers us countless chances to say "Yes" to our inner truth. The spiritual life, thus understood, radically changes everything. Being born and growing up, leaving home and finding a career, being praised and being rejected, walking and resting, praying and playing, becoming ill and being healed -- yes, living and dying -- they all become expressions of that divine question: "Do you love me?" And at every point of the journey there is the choice to say "Yes" and the choice to say "No".