Good morning…
This summer, two of my best friends and I walked through the mountains near Cashiers, North Carolina, and I snapped this photo of a pruned back tree becoming host to new forms of life, sprouting moss, supporting seedlings. This image returned to mind as I read these words aloud to our class this week.
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Excerpt from Paula D’Arcy’s Seeking With All My Heart
During my visit in Oregon, each woman spent several hours alone, and many, like myself, chose to hike into the adjacent rain forest. I was captivated by the forest’s elegance, continuously watching the few rays of light as they sliced through the high treetops, lighting leaves and ferns. For eight hours, I sat on moss-covered earth with my little circle of forest, adjusting to the greenness. Moss wrapped around the trunks of the trees, making a lush carpet on the pathways. Everything dripped with moisture and life. I had the clear realization that everything in the forest was either in a state of birth, maturation, or death. All three, really. Everything that was decomposing was also harboring new life force. From every dying tree trunk or rotting piece of wood, ferns and lichens were growing.
I slept in the forest for a short while, and then watched as wind moved the tops of the highest pines. Lying so far beneath the treetops, it occurred to me the nature is the tangible, outermost rim of a magnificence we barely comprehend…we don’t know how to coexist with something perfect. We work to “tame” nature, dimming its brilliant reflection, sometimes destroying it, often just ignoring it. Bit by bit we dismiss its power, so we can prevail. And we live unaware that nature’s balance is crucial, and has great purpose. It is not a backdrop, but another form of what we profess to respect and follow. Our eyes do not yet see nature’s soul.
…Jesus…was speaking about a pure state, a consciousness. In that consciousness, everything is recognized as it truly is. And you understand that the forest you are looking at also exists deep within you. Everything is a mirror. (49-50)
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Might we also be in a state of birth, maturation, or death? All three, really. The decomposing of “what was” harbors new forms of life, sprouting and reproducing many times over. When we look into the mirror of nature’s soul, our eyes see God’s truth: “From everything dying, everything eternal grows.”
Here is the way Jesus describes the life-giving process: “Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal” (John 12:24-25, MSG).
…Sue…
