Lenten Meditation: Wisdom from Nature
Love fills everything with the same love, the same divine force that moves the earth, stars, and universe. It fills the trees, the earth, and each blade of grass; it flows through ocean waves, through the sky and air. It forever expands in my heart and soul, and in your heart and soul.
Look at the trees, look at the birds, look at the clouds, look at the stars… and if you have eyes, you will be able to see that the whole existence is joyful. Everything is simply happy. Trees are happy for no reason; they are not going to become prime ministers or presidents and they are not going to become rich, and they will never have any bank balance. Look at the flowers – for no reason. It is simply unbelievable how happy flowers are.
The trees smile as I walk by, they embrace me spiritually within their leaves and branches and love me. My spirit reaches out to them, and I embrace them lovingly in return. The sky blesses me with rain, and I feel nourished. My soul reaches up and merges with its infinite expanse. I love the sky and rain. A ray of sunlight flows into my heart and a great healing light fills my mind and thoughts; a part of me remembers that I once was the sun, I send rays of living thoughts back to the sun and thank the sun for giving me life. I feel the earth beneath my feet and know that I am supported by the great blessed mother. I place my hand upon her skin and sense the pounding beat of her heart, ocean waves, and flowing rivers, I sense her molten fiery core and my love flows out to her and I know that from within the heart of this earth many future earths shall be born. I keep on walking and a flower opens its petals as if to greet me. A bird tweets hello and time stands still for a moment and all I feel is love.
There was a man who wanted to find God. He took his backpack, filled it with what he felt he needed for a long journey of pilgrimage, said goodbye to friends and relatives and left his home and town in search of God. He told everyone that he would return when his backpack was filled with God.
On the way, a few miles away from his home, he noticed a small seedling that had grown next to the road. He gazed at the seedling, and said aloud, “How sad to be next to the road and not to be able to move.” The seedling heard the traveler and said, “The real pain is to spend a long time in search of something and never be able to find it.”
The traveler laughed at the seedling and said, “What do you know about search? You are stuck in the mud and unable to experience the joy of searching for something.” He moved on and did not hear the seedling saying, “What you are looking for is right here!”
The traveler continued his journey to search for God. Weeks, months, years, and decades passed, but he was unable to find God. He used up all the supplies he had in his backpack and was unable to find a single sign or clue to help him find God. Exhausted and disappointed, he decided to return home. When the traveler was within a few miles of his town, he noticed a tall, beautiful tree next to the road. Its branches were heavily laden with fruit and flowering blossoms and were covered with green leaves. He picked some of the fruit from the tree and sat in the shade beneath the branches, leaning against the trunk of the tree. He did not recognize the tree as the small seedling he had seen when he left, but the tree recognized and remembered the traveler. ‘Hello traveler, what do you have in your backpack?” the tree asked the traveler. “Would you care to share some with me?” “I am ashamed to tell you that my backpack is empty,” said the traveler.
The tree said to him, “Now that your backpack is empty, you have everything. Many years ago, you passed by here, when I was only a small unimportant seedling, and your backpack was full of everything, including your ego thinking you could find God somewhere out there. Now that you have lost everything, you are ready to truly be able to receive God.” The tree poured the secrets of a greater Truth into the man’s backpack. Suddenly, the traveler became aware that the Presence of God was with him. Surprised with what he was feeling and experiencing, he said to the tree, “I traveled from town to town for decades and could not find God. How were you able to discover God without taking a step out of this mud?” The tree said, “You were looking for God outside of your own self, and you kept losing all the riches you had! I searched for God inside of me, and every moment of every day became richer, more powerful, more beautiful, and more fruitful than ever before. You did not search within you, for it seemed to be much easier for you to look outside and beyond your own being than it was to awaken to the presence of God within your own self.”
~from “The Sacred Heart of Trees” by Toni Carmine Salerno