Pristine
Hello Beautiful,
“The happiest man (or woman, perhaps one should simply state person…?) is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson said that. Except that part in the parentheses, I added that bit in the middle; as I’m sure you might have suspected. It is a wonderful statement. It is also a bit comical, and at the same time dangerously impractical - that it was, seemingly - quite appropriate for Mr. Emerson to leave out half the earth’s population in his day-and-age’s general existential equation. Women are quite happy when learning from nature too.
This letter isn’t about that though; about men versus women or anything of the sort. It’s about this wonderful notion, the idea that ultimate happiness is here to be found, to be found here on earth through the circadian rhythms of all life, of nature. This statement is a beautiful, wonderful “awareness” expressed through the medium of coagulated words; that is to say thoughts pulled from the mind and inked upon the page as curving lines and abrupt edges, agreed upon “letters” squished together to form agreed upon “words,” words that are themselves mere symbols representing observances and an inner life far too grand and nebulous to ever be truly captured, trapped and wholly preserved as a stamp upon our desire for the comprehension of inextinguishable Truth.
No, Truth is not to be “understood.” Truth is felt.
Truth is remembered, through the heart.
Truth, that Ultimate Knowing beneath all knowing, is not cognitive, is not intellectual, is not “thought of” nor “spoken of” through the engine of the mind.
At least not yet.
I suppose when the human mind is fully able to sync with the greater whole and literally comprehend Truth; literally “mentally grasp” Divine Knowing - well then, that’s probably when the need for expression of thought and human words will simply cease to exist. We’ll Be… we won’t have to talk or think. Crazy thought huh? Let’s not get into paragraphs, we’d be here all day.
And I should add dear friend, Mr. Emerson did live and die over a hundred years ago. That’s an awfully long time. This whole masculine perspective thing, this whole “man as a title for all humanity thing,” this whole masculine perspective thing dominating still today much of earth, much of all life across a multitude of cultures and societies (and I say this now as a woman, as a female with great gifts to give…) let’s let go of this. And I mean not only as “men.” Let’s not only let go of a dominant male persecutive, but let’s also let go as “women.” Let us too, as women, let go of our desire for rectification, of our desire for men to right the wrongs of ages past. The power is in our hands.
What if we, what if all humanity let go of a “male vs. female” narrative? Of an “us versus them” perspective? Completely? End of story.
Oh I know its more complicated than that, and I know there are so many millions of hearts aching, so many wounds, so much pain that stands in our way; prohibits the relinquishment of humanities’ historical mistakes. But what if… what if we could let go of that too?
The happiest soul is one who learns from nature the lesson of worship. Nature is, the natural world is - in the gushing of blue water over a fall, in the buzzing of a bee wing’s upon a petal’s tip, in the blood red mask of a tiger’s snout as it ingests ravenously the flesh of some other once living thing - unapologetically present; nature exists in the period of time occurring Now. To learn from nature the manner of existing presently, precisely in-tuned to each moment upon one as it passes through, is to hold a magic key… and to unlock any one of an infinite realm of experiences, sensations and dreams.
Friend, sweet soul if you are oppressed in any way, for any reason - be it your gender, the color of your skin, your religion, your sexual preferences, your attitudes - know that you hold within the natural law of your biological being a magical key. Your oppressor exudes the weaker vibration, you - the opportunity to vanquish the illusion. The only chasm of distinction between an oppressor and one who is oppressed is that the oppressed exudes more brightly. Use your strength wisely, turn your key aptly. You’ve already climbed through your trials and tribulations further than your oppressor can see… (think about that!) The experience of oppression teaches great wisdom. Thus friend, you hold more light; the oppressed - by natural law exudes a more vibrant energy. One oppressing is still learning.
Fight for your voice, your freedom. Know your dignity can never be taken. And at any moment of your choosing forgive your oppressor; let go, release - for the ultimate freedom is to live presently, free from the shackles of even your own grief, of past happenings. Let nature show you the way. The moment of relevance is Now. Today. This breath; an infusion of vivid possibility.
I speak to you with reverence. Friend you are pristine, now and always.
Photo by Diana Măceşanu