Radical awareness does not discriminate between good and bad. It encompasses everything.
In addition to great joy and memories this past weekend, I also feel the intense sadness and despair of global tragedy and deep concern. I feel it all, I let it in, I let it go. I expand radical awareness to the the even bigger WE.
Radical awareness encompasses the minute particulars and the bigger picture. I look for the bigger “WE” in every Wednesday. We goes beyond my marriage, my family, my community; it includes my relationship with all the living creatures around me.
This definitely includes trees and lichen.
Wait, What?
Pay attention.
You might just resonate with what Iʻm saying. My soul gets recharged when I get out in the woods, when I dig my hands in the earth, when I plant a tree. Can you relate?
This past weekend we planted a halapepe, a beloved tree endemic to Hawaiʻi. It is known to represent ka po, the darkness, the unconscious.
And get this, this tree, halapepe, loves living near the lama tree, which is known to represent ka la, the sun, the light, enlightenment.
This thrilled me.
Light and dark. Consciousness and unconsciousness. Integrated. Co-existing. The ultimate “we.”
Integrated. Co-existing. YES.
I see the metaphor in everything. I see the bigger we in everything.
Another example of the bigger “we” is the living creature lichen.
Wait, what?
Pay attention.
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lichen
Lichen by definition is any of numerous complex plantlike organisms made up of an alga or a cyanobacterium and a fungus growing in symbiotic association on a solid surface (such as on a rock or the bark of trees).
Can live anywhere.
Needs another to survive.
Mutualistic relationship.
Symbiotic relationship.
Flipping inspiring.
Patience is the algae. Forgiveness is the fungi. Together they create what I hunger for, perhaps you do, too: a tender, loving relationship.
Patience and forgiveness=tender, loving relationship
The mutualistic relationship of patience and forgiveness equates to a tender, loving relationship.
patience: slowing down in this moment with grace and ease
forgiveness: letting go of the idea of ever having a different past
together, they create a tender, loving relationship that can survive tough conditions and create beauty out of thin air.
Let the trees and creatures inspire you.
We have no time to wait.
Life is extraordinary. The time is now.
