Cycle of Life
As I walk my favorite trail in the woods nearby and by the beloved old pine tree that was fallen about a year ago, I noticed a couple of young pine trees growing beside it. The fallen tree could have been almost 200 years old guessed from the size of the trunk. These young ones are probably at least a few years. This area of my beloved woods have recently been cleared a lot of the older dying trees giving ways for the young ones to get the light they need to grow. The fallen trees would decompose and become the nutrients to help grow the young ones. As I have written before, living up here in the mountains blesses me with an opportunity to watch the nature cycle around up-close on the daily basis.
Yesterday I got a word that one of my closest friends lost her father a couple of days ago, and another one was on a watch for her mother who took a turn to the worse in a hospital after suffering pneumonia. My dear 93-year old mom is now at a rehab facility in Japan. Now that I can talk to her on the phone (as oppose to seeing her on FaceTime) only by an appointment at the facility, I can’t help but notice her dementia is definitely progressing every time I talk to her. I only hope that she would still know me when or if I finally get to see her in person.
As we live through this unfathomable level of crisis in many fronts of our lives, I actually got caught in my own chain of thoughts that took me down into despair over the weekend. With so much destruction and losses all around, I felt hopeless and helpless. I must say it was dark down there. Luckily, I received text messages from a couple of friends on the East Coast checking in for my safety because of the fires. When I responded with my current state of my mind, they reminded me of the spiritual path I travel on and the strength the journey provides me. I also got to talk to my Dharma mentor, Diana, who gave me the assurance we will live through this time no matter how hard things may get.
Meanwhile, my step-daughter is expecting her second daughter within weeks now. I sure hope whatever we will have learned through these collective disasters would lead to the world offering my grand-daughters life with more light and harmony. And I lean on my practice to weather these storms with courage and strength so that I can help to make this world a better place for them and for the humanity itself.