“All real, sustained growth occurs by Grace via the Mystery that lives at the junction of Releasing (death) and Receiving (rebirth).” No striving is necessary. We only need to understand the pattern of transformation: Grief, Gratitude, Gift.
“Graceful Presence (Soul) is the mystery at the Heart of Creation, where Death and Life are One and LOVE transforms all forms into something greater.”
“To be grateful/graceful is to be a vessel of pure receptivity—to live in a state of complete love, limitless potential, and promise of endurance, even though death.”
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart)
—E.E. Cummings
How did the rose ever open its heart and give to this world all its beauty?
It felt the encouragement of the light against its being,
Otherwise we all remain too frightened.
—Hafiz
This past year, we had several trees fall in our yard during storms. We live in a forest, so we understand this is the natural cycle of things. Old, weak, and damaged trees are going to come down. Sometimes, a tree that is none of those things will fall, and we won’t understand why. But the storm isn’t really the cause of death. It’s only helping the natural process along. What needs to let go surrenders to the high winds. And Life is never wasted. The trees’ nutrients are recycled into the ecosystem to be used for the highest good. Space is created for new growth. The wood is burned as fuel for warmth and light or turned into a creation more beautiful than we can yet imagine.
The other day, a dear friend sent a message saying she had something for us and wanted to walk it by after dinner. When she and her husband showed up carrying two beautifully carved food-grade bowls, it didn’t click immediately. But I was overflowing with awe as they explained.
When the trees fell, we had more wood than our family could use. We sent a message to friends and neighbors asking if anyone wanted some, and a friend of theirs had been one of the people who’d received some of the wood. We hadn’t really thought about where the wood was going or what was being done with it. But as it turned out, their friend is a talented woodworker, and in his incredible generosity and gratitude (which I’m learning are actually one and the same), he’d made us two breathtaking bowls from our trees—one of Red Oak and one of Honey Locust. The Red Oak symbolizes absolute love. The Honey Locust protection and endurance, even through death.
I was in awe of the extraordinary bowls and the symbolic unveiling of the deeper gift of interconnected transformation, given freely to all beings. By Grace, the trees had fallen. By Grace, they found their way into the light of someone’s dedicated presence and love. And by Grace, they’d been transformed into something new and beautiful: A vessel. A space of receptivity and nourishment. A symbol of pure potential and promise.
We aren’t self-made. We are True Self made. Everything we are has come to us as a gift of grace from the Heart of Creation. One present (moment) at a time, through the interconnected vessel of the loving presence of all beings. When we finally come to understand and honor this truth, there is no possible response other than gratitude and reciprocity: The gift of our love—our Self—to all creation.
All real, sustained growth occurs by Grace via the Mystery that lives at the junction of Releasing (death) and Receiving (rebirth). No striving is necessary. We only need to understand the pattern of transformation: Grief, Gratitude, Gift.
The following day, I remembered what had been special about the Red Oak and the Honey Locust. The previous owner called them “hugging trees” because they appeared to be embracing one another. Many significant moments for their family had been captured in front of these “hugging trees,” and we’d grieved with him when they fell, all while trusting and honoring the natural cycle.
As it turned out, the trees were holding each other up. When one fell, the other could no longer stand. In a way, they weren’t really two trees at all. They were One. But the illusion of their separateness had to die for this new realization to be born.
Within this realization, a larger Truth resounded. Death and Life are not two, but one. This Oneness has a name—Creation. And Creation can never be extinguished, just miraculously transformed—and ultimately—Revealed. Because within the heart of all beings (including you!) lives a Graceful Presence that is pure gift—a treasure—and it cannot be taken away. It’s who you truly are.
Graceful Presence (Soul) is the mystery that lives at the Heart of Creation, where Death and Life are One and LOVE transforms all forms into something greater.
Miraculously, graceful presence (Soul) is the true state of the Heart of Creation, your heart, and the heart of all beings. The word grace is actually derived from the Latin word “gratia” meaning grateful. And to be grateful is to be like the bowls that were so miraculously gifted to us. To be grateful is to be a vessel of pure receptivity—to live in a state of complete love, limitless potential, and a promise of endurance, even though death.
If we are blessed in our lifetime, we’ll die to our ancestral (or former) self as many times as there are stars in the sky. And like the nebulas that mark the death and rebirth of new stars, there’s a mystery to this intersection that we cannot understand with the mind alone. Instead, we’re called to travel into our inner cosmos, one nebulous transformation at a time. I’ll write more about practicing the rhythm of transformation in a later blog.
However for now, let’s rest together in knowing that as we learn to trust our Soul’s rhythm, and ultimately when the true state of our own Soul is revealed, so too will be the true state of the Soul of Creation, and our trust for her will be irrevocable. Because She is worthy of our trust and always has been.