by Jody Harrow
Five years ago we published a blog post entitled “I went to conquer the plant world and instead it conquered me” about existential realizations and the discovery of the incredibly strong connection between plant life and our humanity. An excerpt:
Then Death isn’t “The End” but simply a transformation analogous to plants decaying as they age - starting the cycle all over again to become the nutrients that feed life anew. There’s an undeniable love and support that underlies this process of seeming separateness. A giving for the sake of giving because, in reality, there isn't any difference between the giver and the recipient.
We’re back to explore these topics in small snippets as part of our ‘Fleeting Moments Series: Exploring the Spirit’. Our first of the the series is below. We’d love to hear from you and are soliciting guest authors so send us your thoughts, big or small, wild or mundane.
Compassion/love seems to be the only right outcome. As a society, don't we shun and deem as bad all other possibilities that are in conflict with compassion? These attributes include selfishness in the forms of lying, stealing, deceit, putting someone else down, anger, killing, etc. Any act or thought that puts (the illusion of) ourselves above the other is counter to who we are at the core. Any act that does not display compassion, that puts me before you, that is about self preservation at any cost and thru any means is counter to a whole-some existence. It is falling for the fractured picture.
When the veil of illusion is lifted we are closer to everyone than we ever could have imagined.
Should all news be taken with the same equanimity? Is this how an enlightened person would react, except for the compassion felt? Compassion is the glue of the universe. This understanding has helped me to move away from my knee-jerk reaction of being critical of what someone is saying - my interior conversation of doubt, quick to negate as I learned this knee jerk reaction from both my father and mother. I have more compassion/sympathy for another's words, thoughts and kind deeds when watching TV. Brought to tears, my heart center opened.
The shift is made. It's not about my critique - but it’s about them. US. It's their story and not about my edited version of them. This is the place where empathy seeps in and takes hold.
Is this why the Kabbalah story of the shattered mirror resonates? In Kabbalah the creation myth states that before God created anything, It inhabited everywhere but in order to make the world we live in, God contracted Its infinite light into a small concentric point. This point then burst and the light shattered. We each have the capacity to reflect this light back, like shards of broken glass, by our deeds.