Love is All Around

What are you swimming in?

Yesterday I walked a path connecting the City of Wahoo and Lake Wanahoo in Nebraska. For most of the hike, wooded Sand Creek is on one side of the winding path and cornfields on the other. Every so often a park bench or shelter with a picnic table appears. On my return from the lake, I sat on a bench for 20 minutes and listened to the symphony of the outdoors.

Birds of various kinds making their calls. Buzzing insects. The breeze blowing through the leaves. The cars on a not-too-distant highway. The spinning wheels of a passing cyclist. Rising, I proceeded on the journey back to my car in town with a newfound appreciation of what's going on around me. 

One could hardly say I was in "nature" as commonly understood. I sat on a bench, not a rock. The limestone path was constructed for cyclists. The corn stalks were there by human intention. Even the lake was man-made. 

But if I wasn't surrounded by nature, I was still surrounded by beauty.

And I felt an awareness of something I had listened to the day before. As William C. Lanyon quotes a potter named Abd Allah: 

As a fish is completely submerged in water, so man is submerged, surrounded by mind, and as the fish of the sea finds his supply, health and happiness in the medium of water, so man must be fed, clothed and cared for by the One Mind or Atmosphere of Love that completely envelops him. 

I felt submerged in love

I felt love from the farmers who are feeding the world. From the planners at Wahoo Parks & Recreation who improved the quality of life for people in the area. From the donors of the benches and picnic tables. From the workers who planted the signs warning cyclists of sharp curves.

So many people determined to keep us happy and safe!

As the path entered Cooks Park back in Wahoo, with one side of the path lined with trees and bushes, the other side mostly grass with some trees, I had a thought.

What if this path is a parade route? What if the trees, and the leaves on them, wait in anticipation of "who's next" on the parade? What if they are excited but we don't hear their cheers. "Hey look! James! And there the jogger Megan! And the cyclist Bryan!"

It's a pretty thought. 

Even more pretty if it's true, if we are submerged in love and all creation responds to us in love.

Why can't I live as if it were true?

James Leroy Wilson writes from Nebraska. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter. If you enjoy his articles, subscribe and exchange value for value. You may contact James for your writing, editing, and research needs: jamesleroywilson-at-gmail.com. Permission to reprint is granted with attribution.

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