Every time I go adventuring in nature I am reminded how deeply interconnected we all are – every human, animal, drop of rain, cloud, ray of sunshine, rock formation, tree, and insect – and from this poignant reminder is an ever heightened understanding that the creative force that runs through all of it is the power of love.
But, not just any love. The kind of love that I’m referring to here is the love that infinitely connects us to respect all forms of life and the processes that give birth to life in its various forms.
There’s a great deal of trust in living this way and there’s a certain kind of honor that one must exhibit in walking through this territory. Honor presupposes love in this regard. It’s an honor that holds sacred the harmony of the universe.
I watched this sacred harmony with intense and curious interest while adventuring with my love in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. On one of our hikes the clouds turned from vibrant blue to grey hues and the thunder rolled in quite ferociously as it usually does in the mountains mid-afternoon in the summer.
We were prepared with our rain gear in our backpacks, but I couldn’t help but sensing an assurance that the universe was abundant with the resources we needed.
We had just peaked the granite mountaintop when the rain began and so we sat under a tree to enjoy our lunch. The canopy of the tree protected us from the rain. While we ate our lunch under the tree canopy we witnessed something sacred together sitting in the silence listening to the raindrops hit the placid lake at the top of the mountain – the harmony of the universe was happening right before our eyes.
I was completely saturated with the intimacy of it all. I had heard rain drop on the surface of a lake before, but never quite like this. I suppose it had something to do with the lake being enclosed with huge towers of granite or perhaps it was also the purity of the landscape. Nevertheless, there was something very mystical and magical about it all.
As we listened to the sacred raindrops, a hawk flew over the top of the lake with a resounding and reverberating “caw…caw…caw”. My heart melted and formed its own mystical structure right alongside the granite rock formations we were meditating on. It felt like we were in a painting, but a special live painting where everything was exactly where it needed to be.
The hues gave the moment depth, the landscape gave it texture, and our presence gave it heart.
It is in these moments where love wins and wins again. It’s the kind of love that guides us to respect life and the processes that give birth to life, not only in nature, but in our own lives as well.
Once the rain stopped and we finished our lunch, we headed to a part of the granite less travelled to seek out some spectacular views of the mountain landscape. We were both still basking in the glow of our recent engagement on this adventure when again we found another granite rock to sit and soak in the silence together.
It was in that moment I gained significant clarity in how much faith I had put into this moment occurring in my life – the faith of finding a love that connected us to respect all forms of life and the processes that give birth to those forms of life.
After having this experience and this thought, I wasn’t quite sure how to put this kind of faith into words until a young man I mentor in prison sent me this passage from Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”
Many fairytale feathered messengers ago I began to wonder with deep angst if I would live to experience this moment in the mountains together. Yet, every time I ventured out to nature I regained a healthy sense of confidence and an assurance imbued with such deep magic and mystery the only reasonable answer was to keep loving.
As it turns out, love indeed wins again.
Om Shanti Om ~ Athea
