I once had a
friend who was exclaiming a moment in which, while driving alone,
she suddenly felt ecstatic union with everything: the sun, the road,
the glossy blue sky, the clouds, the trees. Especially the trees.
She remarked how early spring sunlight was glittering bright upon
the newly greened surface of leaves, all shimmering in the breeze,
mile upon mile, looking like magical silvery fish rippling along the
surface of a river. And all the trees along both sides of the road
seemed at that moment to be waving just to her, encouraging her,
buoying her, congratulating her on this unexpected, newfound sensing
of life.
“Wow,” I
said, amazed and appreciative of such a wonderful vision. “What
happened next?” My friend looked at me for a moment and then began
laughing uproariously, like an old Zen master who has just heard the
funniest joke in the Universe.
Although
this interchange took place 20 years ago, it has stuck in my memory,
persistent as a hearty seed. Sometimes, when I am driving my car
alone, the old memory blossoms and my vision shifts of its own
accord. I, too, begin to see trees waving at me from the sides of
the road, their golden leaves glinting in the sunlight like the
scales of my friend’s mythical fish. Other times snow lays so heavy
on the boughs of pines that branches bend and arch as if bowing a
white-robed welcome home. Something changes in such moments, for
when we slip into that state of being which recognizes the blessings
of trees, we can’t help but also open ourselves to the wider,
deeper, endless beauty shining through — and uniting — everything
and everyone.
The poet e.
e. cummings phrases it so perfectly:
yes is a world
& in this world of
yes live
(skillfully curled)
all worlds
And what
happens next? I think if we are lucky and wise, perhaps we learn at
last simply to say yes — again and again, we say yes. Yes is a world
in which we open with grace, accepting all the blessings that come
our way.
Everywhere, in
every moment, there is cause for celebration; an invitation to live
more consciously within the world of Yes.
Dawn Brunke is the editor
of Alaska Wellness and the author of Animal Voices, Shapeshifting
with Our Animal Companions, and the newly released Animal
Voices, Animal Guides. See
www.animalvoices.net for more.
