Love
Your Cracks
“Every
crack is also an opening.”
Mark Nepo
(The Book of Awakening, p.256)
In my back yard stands a
Japanese umbrella tree. I have no idea how it got there. Its slim
green trunk stands about twenty feet tall with perhaps fifty large
leaves at the very top. When the wind blows, the whole tree sways
this way and that. In the middle of the canopy sits a nest of Brown
Thrashers. I've watched as they come and go, feeding their brood. The
shells of their brown speckled eggs lie in pieces on the ground at
the base. Liza wallows on them when she gets a chance.
I happened upon a bright
blue robin's egg in the front yard this week. Half an egg, that is. I
remember as a child, collecting them for their unmistakable
eye-catching color. Life has quieted somewhat for the birds here.
They began early with nesting because of the mild winter, and some
are finished. The Brown Thrashers can lay, hatch, and raise up a
brood in as little as nine days! And, they live up to twelve years,
so one nesting pair can produce dozens of offspring over a lifetime.
Good thing it's not that easy for humans or we'd be stacked up to the
heavens.
Finding broken eggs on
the ground is a sign of life renewing itself. Old birds giving birth
to new birds. All kinds of cracked and broken things interest me;
possibly because cracks are significant. Where there's a crack,
there's an opportunity for something new and different to happen.
Solid walls keep things stuck—either stuck inside, or stuck
outside. But walls with openings—well, things can happen there!
When there's a crack in one's emotional armor, for instance, there's
the possibility for new information to seep in, and old habits to
seep out. Cracks are doorways into the unknown, packed with
possibilities.
Today, cherish your
cracked and broken places. Give thanks for the opportunities they
provide. Who knows--Spirit might slip in through the crack, and cause new life to burst forth!
In the Spirit,
Jane
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