Two nights ago I stepped out into the garden, angry at our landlady, who had just raised our rent and we would have to move. I started tearing out small garden plants by the roots, because the landlady wants tenants who leave to rip out their gardens. These plants were diseased and needed to come out, but as I plucked I thought, better to do this with love. So I gave love to each plant I uprooted and embraced it in my heart, saying that I had to do this because the landlady wanted it. I imagined that Jesus did the same thing when people were at life’s end, telling them with love that he had to take them.
And then suddenly, I plucked out a plant by the roots but the plant’s life was still right where I left it. I stopped, stunned, at what I was seeing. There were dead leaves and roots in my hand, but the Life of each plant was right where it had been before. This Life was not really “seen” as we see forms either. In fact, my whole vision was now filled with Life—that’s all there was, with transparent forms of earth and plants, and my hand. The Life was all there really was, and nothing had really changed—I did not kill these plants by digging up their forms. I couldn’t kill these plants. The Life was there all around, regardless of the form, and the form didn’t matter at all. A foggy law of physics ran through my mind: Matter can neither be created nor destroyed, is that how it goes? But it should read, Life can neither be created nor destroyed. It just Is, all around, everywhere, and our bodies are nothing. We cannot hurt, not can we be hurt! We cannot be diseased! And most of all, we cannot die! The only thing that matters, that Is, is Life. To paraphrase Helen Schucman’s book title, Life Is. We are free! And we can go our way, rejoicing. Amen.
Love,
Nancy Schuster
No comments:
Post a Comment