We’re all in this together

How to Bloom

The almond trees in bloom: all we can accomplish here is to ever know ourselves in our earthly appearance.

I endlessly marvel at you, blissful ones — at your demeanor,
the way you bear your vanishing adornment with timeless purpose.
Ah, to understand how to bloom; then would the heart be carried
beyond all milder dangers, to be consoled in the great one.

Rilke

This past week tiny, tiny mushrooms, about half an inch tall, pushed through the burden of soiled gravity into the embrace of sunlight.

While not the almond tree blossoms that Rilke writes about, there is a semblance of “timeless purpose” in these wee mushrooms’ demeanor. A demeanor that leans with a gentle ache into the soft light. A gentle ache that speaks of their all too quick vanishing adornment even as they bow in grateful prayer.

In the above photo there is also a sense of a shared existence. A communion of purpose, so to speak.

In a recent reply to a friend’s question, I wrote: “You asked if I’m happy back on my land. Yes. Everyday I feel a hugh gratefulness to be surrounded with so much dynamic beauty. Always amazing. If there is a negative, it is that I don’t want to hide out in the woods alone. There’s something here that needs be shared. Hence, the open house.”

The open house referred to happened last Friday about the same time the mushrooms were emerging. A small group of seven people turned up at Windgrove for several hours to dialogue on a subject dear to my heart:  “How “artistic behaviour” is so vital in creating a world that is environmentally sustainable, socially just and spiritually fulfilling”.

Was it a success? I can only hint at an answer this with a quote from the book ‘Active Hope’ by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone.

“We can never know whether our actions will have a decisive impact. What we can know is that by supporting one another, we make this possibility more likely.”

In the end, although our time on this earth is as fleeting as any wee mushroom, it behoves us to tend to, in as loving and caring a way as possible, the ongoing nurturing of this earth so that the wee ones following us have as much chance to bloom as we did.