Category: Meditations

The traumas of a tree’s life are visible on the surface, as knots form and bark curls around to protect and restore the damaged places.

How might you treat those around you differently if you could read their life stories in their skin?

“Therefore, be ye lamps unto yourselves, be a refuge to yourselves. Hold fast to Truth as a lamp; hold fast to the truth as a refuge. Look not for a refuge in anyone beside yourselves. And those, who shall be a lamp unto themselves, shall betake themselves to no external refuge, but holding fast to the Truth as their lamp, and holding fast to the Truth as their refuge, they shall reach the topmost height.” – Gautama Buddha

How will you find refuge in yourself today?

When you were a child, did you ever lose a ball over the fence, a Frisbee onto the roof or a kite into a tree? It’s hard not to panic when something you care about suddenly slips out of sight. Sometimes we managed to get those beloved playthings back, and sometimes we didn’t. But not too infrequently, when you went looking for the item that escaped, you would find something else entirely, something you thought was gone forever, or that you had completely forgotten about.

What have you found when you were looking for something else?

In a tiny village, each person is very visible to their neighbors, while the town is invisible to the larger world. In a great city people no one knows all the people who surround them, but the city is recognized everywhere. And yet, each human soul, known and unknown, is of equal worth.

Where do you feel known? Where do you feel invisible?

Each bush and trees stands just a bit apart from the others, claiming its own space, its own right to the sun. But underground all the roots intertwine, and every plant walks the earth’s dark corridors with its fingers interlaced with those of another.

In what invisible ways are you connected with those around you?