Inside/Outside

By Nachman of Breslov

Grant me the ability to be alone;

May it be my custom to go outdoors each day

Among the trees and grass - among all growing things

And there may I be alone, and enter into prayer,

To talk with the One to whom I belong.

May I express there everything in my heart,

And may all the foliage of the field -

All grasses, trees, and plants -

Awake at my coming,

To send the powers of their life into the words of my prayer

So that my prayer and speech are made whole

through the life and spirit of all growing things,

Which are made as one by their transcendent Source.

May I then pour out the words of my heart

Before your Presence like water, 

And lift up my hands to You in worship,

On my behalf, and that of my children!

What has been the most profound spiritual experience of your life?

What is your relationship with nature?

Nachman of Breslov, the founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement, lived in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in Ukraine.