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The grosbeak sings with a completely cherishable roughness..
With what words can I convince you of the casualness with which the white swans fly..
Do you give a thought now and again to the essential sparrow, the necessary toad?
Just as truly as the earth is ours, we belong to it. The tissue of our minds is made of it, and the soles of our feet, as fully as the tiger’s claw, the branch of the whitebark pine, the voices of the bird, the dog-tooth violet and the tooth of the dog….
This morning I took a hike with our ectourist group in Guyana up to some caves with bats. Along the way we walked through a forest teaming with thousands of species biting, singing, crawling, hooting, growing, and photosynthesizing. I love the tropical forest and after days and days in one, I begin to know I belong, as do all beings. However, I am guessing that for you, like me, there are certain special places in your life that more clearly and strongly say, “You belong.” For me it is swimming in natural body of water.
After this hike I mentioned I jumped off a bank of a forest river into clear cool water. With fish swimming all around me, I circled round to see a Pygmy Kingfisher perched on a branch and below him, my species washing their clothes. Clothes, fur, feathers no matter how roughly or finely we are clad, we are the skin of the earth emerging from the mixing of mud with water.
Belonging is the first step, and a hard one to be sure. I believe there is more struggles before us all - knowing we are necessary, and also not.
Where do you gain your greatest sense of belonging?
I've recently been reading Bodhipaksa's book, "Living as a River" which uses as a meditative practice an awareness of the interconnectedness of what one calls my "self" with the other elements of the universe, how everything that constitutes what we are is "borrowed" -- in other words, there is no clear demarcation between self and other because all beings are enmeshed in an infinite web of mutual interdependence.
ReplyDeleteBefore I began reading this however, it occurred to me that the breath intimately connects us to the world. Breath is mine and it is not mine. Breath is given and received but it is never a static thing-- it is always in motion. You can't cling to the breath. Life is like this too, learning when to receive and learning when to let go. After all, the Greeks referred to the breath (pneuma) as "spirit," that which animates life. The breath is an amazing teacher. :-)
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