briefly, you‘re nothing

Walking with the badgerhound today, I noticed a clump of trees in the near-distance. Then, one in particular, to the left of the picture. It’s always there, outstanding with its strong curvature. It’s an oak tree, that much I know.

It invites me over, suggesting I let the dog run off-leash, against park regulations. Ralph Waldo Emerson thought of the natural world as a spiritual text, to be read by careful observers.

“In the woods, we return to reason and faith…
Standing on the bare ground – my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space – all mean egotism vanishes.
I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me …”

(Emerson, Nature, 1836)

Open your/self. Feel the texture, the temperature, the dryness, the moisture … and … and …. your eyes, ears, palms of hands, feet touching the earth. Lean into the external cracks: inhale, smell, taste. Hug me — you want to!

It was here before you were born and, if it to be*, will still be there after you’re dead and gone.

Granted, those are just passing thoughts: stories the mind makes up to make sense of what’s beyond comprehension. So, ask yourself: is it allright to not-know, to not understand something? What then, asks the elephant, is this?

“If it be your will“

spoken by Leonard Cohen and sung by the sublime Webb Sisters