Wherever you stand, whatever is before you, be in the soul of that place.  
There you will find your belonging.
                         — Rumi 

.

A pair of sandhill cranes  graced our backyard. Their long-legs moved in elegant, unhurried and seemingly choreographed strides. Side by side, they moved as if bound by an invisible thread, mirroring a perfect harmony with each other and with nature.

We are not distant observers. Humanity coexists with nature and at our best, we acknowledge the invisible thread that connects everything and we belong to it.

We watch a tree bow to a higher authority as it releases its hold and allows the leaves to wrestle and break free.   Remain there in that moment and you will know the same hand that moved the wind to escort each leaf to its safe landing would also guide you to yours.

And we are grateful to belong to this grand cycle of life and the promise of Life after Life. 

We see courage everywhere, everyday.  

Today I saw courage and I drew from it, lingering in it, belonging to it.

Our dear friend, Alan who is a resident in Memory Care,  reached back in his mind to recall the song, "Return to Me'.  The familiar lyrics brought up a smile, a smile that refused to fade even with the heavy world closing in on him. 

His song of courage rang through me.

Ten-year-old Marco likes to wonder about things.  He often asks me deep questions, like this one.

We were on our way to the ballpark when he asked me, "GiGi, what did you have as a child that doesn't exist now and you miss it?"

Without hesitation, I answered with one word, "FREEDOM.  We had a sense of unbounded safety as we freely rode our bikes at will, to a friend's house or through a path in the woods, touching nature and feeling her touch back."

And just then, Marco wistfully mused as he looked out at the window as we passed a forest. "GiGi, I know there are paths out there in that forest and they call to me."  

I smiled.  "They call to me, too."

And I knew we both belonged to that moment, savoring the lure and the call of life's mysteries.  

The Tree of Life

Every savored moment we claim is not a fleeting breath lost to time, but a living seed that takes root. These memories give full color and texture to our ever-widening branches in our Tree of Life. 

We are the architects of life not by grasping at distant horizons, but with the realization that we are not distant observers. Each laughter-filled encounter, quiet realization, and shared glance lets go of the heavy rush of today to give strength to our core and shaping the unique silhouette of who we are. 

Belong to each moment. In a conversation with a grandson.  With butterflies that waltz in your garden.  And in random encounters that become meaningful and then you know, it was not random at all.  

You were chosen for this moment.

 But ye are chosen, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;
     --- 1 Peter 2:9

If you are reading this, thank you for sharing these moments with me.  Good energy never dies.  It gets transformed and lives on in others.  g.hill