Slide the Lens ...

 

 

Have you ever wondered why trees

are such a happy lot?

They've mastered patience.

Either that or it's the music they listen to.

THE UNIVERSE

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One day I was so perplexed I decided to take a break and go to my neighborhood park.  I found my favorite thinking bench and watched the water flowing over the well worn rocks in the little stream.  Sorting out my thoughts, I allowed my mind to wander through various scenarios trying to use different perspectives.

I felt very small sitting on the cement bench mulling over what appeared to be large frustrations.  I looked across the stream onto the side of the hill where ancient trees were grouped. Time and nature had taken away much of the dirt exposing the roots that dug deeply into the ground.  This is how I want to be, I thought.  I want to have deep roots so I can securely withstand all kinds of weather.

I removed myself from the park bench and walked several feet down to the bridge leading across the stream.  When I reached the other side, I climbed up the steep hill and wandered through the trees until I found a favorite one.  It had such a demanding presence with its height and enormous canopy of leaves. 

I leaned against the trunk of the tree as I sat amongst the gnarly roots.  I looked back across the stream to where I had just been and from this elevation the bench looked so small.  I felt limitless in the midst of the mighty trees and sitting very still, blended right in.

From my hidden place on the hill, I watched a young couple visit the bench across the way. They talked and laughed totally unaware of my distant presence.  I found myself wondering if this was how Spirit felt watching our daily lives without us being aware.  I felt an immediate shift in what was significant and how I was to proceed.

This experience reminded me how small I could feel when overwhelmed by problems and tried to solve them alone or how balanced I could be if I simply elevated my awareness to include the presence of Spirit.  Life appears through the perspective we decide to use and if we but remember to gently slide the lens, we will discover an expanded view.

Can You Imagine, by Mary Oliver

  



CAN YOU IMAGINE?

by Mary Oliver

For example, what the trees do
not only in lightening storms
or the watery dark of a summer’s night
or under the white nets of winter
but now, and now, and now – whenever
we’re not looking. Surely you can’t imagine
they don’t dance, from the root up, wishing
to travel a little, not cramped so much as wanting
a better view, or more sun, or just as avidly
more shade – surely you can’t imagine they just
stand there loving every
minute of it, the birds or the emptiness, the dark rings
of the years slowly and without a sound
thickening, and nothing different unless the wind,
and then only in its own mood, comes
to visit — surely you can’t imagine
patience, and happiness, like that.