Leaf is Leaf, Skin is Skin

Posted on November 20, 2006 in Attitudes Satisfaction

I don’t see lessons in nature as some do. For me, it is very important to keep the separation, to remember that leaf is leaf and skin is skin. It’s easy to read too much into this season when the sycamores turn a ghastly yellow brown and the chamise throws up its white plumes. In a few weeks, the mistletoe in the sycamores will be visible and the chamise may burn. These are not me. I do not see my emotions or my destiny in them.

You can look at too many skeletons and see yourself planted in the ground, unable to move, thrall of the wind and the undercuttings of streams. That is a variety of helplessness that I find it wise not to subscribe to. The trees do not signify my depression nor the chamise my temper or mutability. I live separately from them, though in a universe where the same processes affect all organisms.

There’s wonder in that: that we live on this dirt speck and that variety thrives here. That is the communion I feel with the trees, the mistletoe, and the greasewood. The separation of Joel from sycamore is ultimately illusory as physicists and the Buddha teach, but I do not ascribe my feelings to plants nor expect them to share my griefs. I go it alone and when I look at the world, I am happier for it.