We cannot count the wild. The wild is one because it is boundless. We can count fig trees, we can count sheep because the orchard and the farm are bounded. The essence of orchard tree and farm sheep is number.
People and Places of Nature and Culture, Rod Giblett; Intellect, Bristol, UK, 2011.
There is a persistent question in biblical studies; why is “wilderness” so often associated with the Divine? There are many ways to answer this question. This passage suggests that wilderness, unlike domesticated orchards and animals, cannot be reduced to counting. Therefore, in some sense wilderness shares the quality of uniqueness or oneness with God. (HAC)
I learned this, at least, by my experiment;
that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams,
and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined,
he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
from the “Conclusion” to Walden, Henry David Thoreua
We all travel the milky way together, trees and men; but it never occurred to me until this storm-day, while swinging in the wind, that trees are travelers, in the ordinary sense. They make many journeys, not extensive ones, it is true; but our own little journeys, away and back again, are only little more than tree-wavings–many of them not so much. John Muir, “The Mountains of California”. New York: The Century Co., 1894 .
This passage is one small part of a truly beautiful paean to nature titled “A Wind-Storm in the Forests, found in chapter 10 of his book “The Mountains of California”. I highly recommend reading the entire passage, if not the book. Click here for a link to it.
I am taking Burning Bush Adventures on the road to different Jewish communities over the next few weeks! To see if I’ll be visiting a city near you click here.
The child of a certain rabbi used to wander in the woods. At first his father let him wander, but over time he became concerned. The woods were dangerous. The father did not know what lurked there.
He decided to discuss the matter with his child. One day he took him aside and said, “You know, I have noticed that each day you walk into the woods. I wonder, why you go there?”
The boy said to is father, “ I go there to find God.”
“ That is a very good thing,” the father replied gently.“ I am glad you are searching for God. But, my child, don’t you know that God is the same everywhere?”
“Yes,” the boy answered, “but I’m not.” A hasidic story told by Rabbi David Wolpe.
I am taking Burning Bush Adventures on the road to different Jewish communities over the next few weeks! To see if I’ll be visiting a city near you click here.
Surely all God’s people, however serious or savage, great or small, like to play. Whales and elephants, dancing, humming gnats, and invisibly small mischievous microbes – all are warm with divine radium and must have lots of fun in them.
John Muir, The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, (1913), pages 186-187
There is Some Kiss We Want
There is some kiss we want
With our whole lives,
the touch of spirit on the body.
Seawater begs the pearl
to break its shell.
And he lily, how passionately
it needs some wild darling.
At night, I open the window
and ask the moon to come
and press its face against mine.
Breathe into me.
Close the language-door
and open the love-window.
The moon won’t use the door,
only the window.
Rumi
Translated by Coleman Barks
Join me on a canoe trip and this could be your view on the world!
