Natural Mysteries

We live within a web of natural wonder, whether or not we are totally cognizant of it at all times. However, we have woven another blanket of human affairs, social construction, and technology around ourselves, which often hides the “first world” of nature to which we are webbed. Without that first world, all other life would be impossible including civilization itself and our own personal existence… and we forget this.

Jim Kimmel has brought all of this back into focus for me with his concerns for spiritual ecology and the work of the Order. I am grateful for the constant reminder that he and Jerry provide in this regard by being who they are in relationship to the world. This morning I was reflecting on these themes, when a line of a poem by Mary Oliver stood out strongly to me:

Take care you don’t know anything in this world
too quickly or easily. Everything
is also a mystery, and has its own secret aura in the moonlight,
its private song.

The world of nature is full of mysteries and song. We are webbed to it to learn these mysteries, to hear this music, and to learn slowly as we listen with “both ears.” We are privileged to be here within the web. The world of natural mysteries awaits our attention. One of our fundamental tasks is to learn the wisdom that is all around us.