There is so much more to this post than what you are reading. It may not even make sense to some, but it’s me working out something that was/is weighing heavy on my mind”
The simple act of running and walking for some people can open up the window of your mind. I’m one of those people, especially first thing in the morning. There is something about the stillness of a new day. The quiet calm settles my soul like a mother swaying her baby.
These morning outings are when God speaks to me. He’s telling me, “you can rarely hear me when you are so distracted by all of the chaos of modern life” Some might call this “pseudo religion,” but I can not change what I feel or experience. This is my truth.
God is all around me when I step outside into nature. He calls to me when I deeply listen to the soft whisper of the wind in the trees, or when the beauty of a single dew drop hanging onto an apple green leaf stops me dead in my tracks.
For me, all of life’s questions are in nature for this is God’s masterpiece. “Ask your mortal questions, seek answers in a place that I created,” He whispers to me. Pay attention though, because if your mind is noisy and full of thoughts you won’t hear me,” He says.
“Why does this dew drop stop me in my tracks?” I ask. If you slow down and ponder the miracle in the plump, spherical gem hanging onto it’s host, there lies the answer, seek comfort there. During the night the water accumulates and as the sun rises the heavy ball sits on the edge balancing on it’s slick spear like leaf. Now the sun is shining on it and it glimmers like a precious gem. You see it from several steps away because it’s reflection is so luminous, so bright it throws a beam of energy toward you– you can not look away– it’s too bright– it’s too strong to ignore.
You stop and kneel down to get a closer look and you notice that this water pearl is much bigger and more radiant than some of the others. That glow comes at a cost. It’s so full of light that it’s barely hanging onto it’s apple green blade. The leaf itself is the shape of a slide. Any bigger and the dew would slide down and become one with the thirsty earth.
“Is this how it works?” I ask. The most voluminous and brilliant gems that carry so much of your light are there to nourish the earth? They become one with the soil and then evaporate into the sky and become one with you? Is this the answer?
It’s agonizing to see such delicacy and refinement disappear. I miss the exquisite beauty. I long to stopped in my tracks. Beauty is fleeting and precious and if not fully appreciated free of distraction, you will ache with sadness when it’s gone. You will yearn for it to return even if you completely appreciate it! “Please come back– I can’t bear this life without you!” “But this life so fragile and cherished– be grateful that you saw my reflection at all!”
Take a picture in your mind. Write it down. Draw it. Write a song, feel the artistry in life, for it is fleeting and nimble, but take some comfort in the notion that the precious radiant dew drop is all around you– they might leave our sight, but they are never gone for they are one with the earth and sky. The masterpiece that God has so graciously gifted us surrounds us in, “heaven years” — years that never slip away and never leave us.
