We Have This Faith—That a Lifetime’s Bliss Will Appear Any Minute

One of the ancient mystics wrote, “Into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.”

I need that journey.

It is time, in this tumult of meanness, to absorb the beauty of autumn. I must leave the hollow vulgarity of politics and get lost in the trees with their tumbling treasures of color.

Across this vast country, through open grasslands and the upland passes, over deeply textured mountains and along stone path streams, there lies before us nature’s unbiased beauty.

There is something spiritual about nature, something wise and instructive. Yes, it has its turbulent side, which is simply a part of the mystery of the universe. But even with its blasts of snow and desert heat, even with the ferocity of hurricanes and the damaging winds of tornados, the pounding of hail and lightning’s deadly strikes, the earth is still filled with a luminous glow that stirs our deepest longings and leaves us motionless, breathless, awed.

There are experiences waiting for us far greater than our angry politics, our radical religious dogma, our rude prejudices. And we need those experiences for our survival.

They exist in nature. In its grandeur, is the presence of a power to unify, to bring us to our knees, to leave us in tears. In nature, our ego is a tiny pathetic thing. Let us stand at night under an open sky and see if the stars don’t overwhelm our bumbling disagreements. Let us reach the top of a mountain and take in something profoundly grander than our small-minded exasperations.

Gaze across a sandy beach and stare into the ocean and feel the vast expanse of forces deep and sweeping and tell me there are not higher considerations in life than our political disputes with our neighbors.

There is adventure in life when we live, as poet and naturalist Diane Ackerman has said, “on the leash of our senses.”

I want to be pulled by what moves me, by what says to my spirit, Hey, come on out beyond your fears and your irritations and feel the majesty of life.

And what that voice is pointing to is nature—elephants loping along their giant paths, squirrels flitting down trees, cattle resting in the grass, undisturbed by the passing days. It points to rose bushes scarlet with wonder, to wheat fields shimmering in the sun, to the palm tree and the oak and the bowing willow inviting us to relax, breathe, and be durable.

Biologist E.O. Wilson once wrote, “Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive, and even spiritual satisfaction.” We so often look in the wrong places to be fulfilled when it is waiting for us in nature.

Writer Christy Ann Martine put it this way, “It’s not enough to notice the beautiful flowers as you walk past them. You need to reach for their soft petals, feel their essence, remember what it is to grow.”

That is nature’s lesson. It reveals the astonishment of birth, the inexplicable and alluring journey of life, the magnificent process of growth, and the final truth we all must face that is death.

These are the profound truths that instruct and inform our humanity. Let me go into the forest away from the trivial and the shallow, the enraged and the fuming, and walk the way of nature. Let me be stunned by the presence of miracles unfolding before my eyes.

Tagore put it beautifully,

“The night is black and the forest has no end;

A million people tread it in a million ways.

We have trysts to keep in the darkness, but where

Or with whom—of that we are unaware.

But we have this faith—that a lifetime’s bliss

Will appear any minute, with a smile upon its lips.

Scents, touches, sounds, snatches of songs

Brush us, pass us, give us delightful shocks.”

And so, our lessons in nature are learned.

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The Unclad Soul

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