Up
Close
“When up
close, each thing reveals its shimmer. And it's the unexpected
closeness that holds everything together...There's a closeness we
recognize in everything simple, as if we knew everything at the
moment of our birth and living is how we remember it all, piece by
broken piece...”
Mark Nepo
(“Speechless,” Things That Join the Sea and Sky: Field Notes on
Living)
Do you ever stop to look
closely at things—like the bark on this oak tree. Do you ever study
the pattern a flowing stream makes as it winds around rocks and
fallen limbs? Have you ever picked up a cicada shell and examined the
intricacy of it and marveled at how the insect manages to extract
itself without destroying its shell? If you do these things, then you
know how amazing the world truly is. The details are beautiful, and
ingenious, and truly worth noticing. One thing that always strikes me
when looking at this bark close up is how much it looks like the skin
of an elephant—a realization that reinforces the fact that all
beings are related.
I can almost hear the
guardian angel of a baby who's about to be born whispering in its
ear, “Tuck this wisdom away and keep it safe; the grown-ups are not
ready for it.” The eyes of a newborn tell it all—they come here
knowing what their souls have seen so recently—that all things are
connected, that there is no separation between us, our creator, and
all of creation. We are made from the very same clay shaped into many
things. And so it is. We forget, and it takes the rest of our lives
to remember.
I once watched a pod of
gray whales off the coast of Rhode Island, surfacing and blowing a
spout of water and breath out of the blow-holes on the tops of their
heads. On one of those soundings, a mother with a newborn calf raised
it out of the water on her flipper, and then gently lowered it back
in. Like any mother, she was teaching her baby how to live, how to be
a whale. It was a moment of pure grace for me.
You don't have to become
a tree-hugger, but it would be wonderful to have more
tree-appreciators. More people who recognized the relationship
between humans and all other living beings. More who understand that
all things are connected, interdependent, and holy. I wonder if you
are one of those. If so, at least pet a tree today. Pretend it's an
elephant.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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