Dear friends,
What does it mean to love God if not to love Life, all of it, in its wild diversity. We ought to be in awe all the time! I once spent most of an afternoon sitting in front of the jelly fish exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, marveling at their beauty, delicacy and variety. It is impossible to pay attention to the details of Nature and not fall in love with whatever is the Source of it all.
When Emerson was 36 years old, he wrote about a visit to Walden Pond. “The water seemed made for the wind, and the wind for the water, dear playfellows for each other. I said to my companion, I declare the world is so beautiful that I can hardly believe it exists.”
This beauty, this perfection of activity, all interlocking and mutually supportive, does exist and we barely notice it. Nature is the grand metaphor for God. Intelligent, creative, forever becoming, she shows how Life in the physical realm can be a dance, a symphony of interdependence. The terrible mistake Humanity made was to see itself outside of this masterpiece. We thought we should dismantle it, classify it, dominate it. It never occurred to us that we are as much a part of it as the butterflies and the jellyfish, that our well-being is intrinsically tied up with the well-being of Nature herself. If we love God, we love its creation, all of it and we take care of it.
Stay tuned,
Carol Carnes www.centerforspirituallivingbakersfield.com
