While walking one morning, I had a magical experience.
As I turned the corner onto the next street, the world went silent. Not nature. The world.
I made no sound. My feet were silent. My breath was silent. It was if the person I call me wasn’t there. I was a camera moving through the green trees, recording bird song, and feeling the blue of the sky as if it extended down to the road.
I was gliding through a piece of the universe, but the expanse of it was all around me and in me.
It lasted a few minutes, and then it was me once again walking down the road. I couldn’t replicate the experience even if I tried, because these things happen when we least expect it.
But the pale memory of it is something I can fall back on when I forget that the world is much more than I can see and that each of us contains the infinite diversity of the universe.
If we pay attention to it, nature doesn’t let us forget this fact. Nature reminds us that we are all part of the fabric of the Divine’s immense, unquenchable, and beautiful diversity.
Some people don’t like it.
When we first moved to our home, we decided not to mow the back half-acre of our property. The previous owner had mowed it, even though it was quite a feat to get there.
We choose to let it alone and let it become what was before someone decided that a green lawn was better than a forest meadow.
Now a dozen years later, that land is returning to itself. Evergreen trees are everywhere. Grasses and bushes and wildflowers are blooming. Deer and other animals love it.
Our neighbor hates it. She wants it to be a flat green lawn again. Diversity scares her. It’s not something she can control.
Recently when she came by to complain about it again, she noticed the tiny meadow we have encouraged within our lawn, and she was even more confused. Why would we have that mess as part of our yard?
The birds, bees, butterflies, squirrels, and the other animals that come through our yard aren’t confused. They love this little meadow. And as much as I love my more ordered garden, this meadow makes me even happier.
This little patch of a meadow is a mess right now as it works out its balance. But every year I see it become more of what it is meant to be. I help it along, not by stopping it, but by giving it what it needs to be there. But most of the time, that means staying out of it.
Infinite, expansive, diversity is what constitutes the universe.
We humans are the ones that impose sameness because we are afraid to not be in control, even though it takes a lot of effort to control things. And in the end, it’s a waste of time, because it can’t be done. We are fooling ourselves if we think we are doing anything other than wasting our time, and often hurting ourselves and others in the process.
When we remove our human beliefs and habits, then nature takes over, or more accurately, the Divine’s infinite expression of Itself shines through the symbols of nature.
The day I glided through the universe, for a brief moment in time, the harmony of diversity made total sense.
The universe I experience is different than the one that you do. It’s the same one, only experienced differently depending on our beliefs, habits, and willingness to let go.
Our neighbor experiences the world as something she needs to control. I want to experience the world for what it is, letting go of expectations that get in the way.
As the world discovers the hidden wrongs that exist within it and brings them into the foreground of our lives to be vanquished, we can remember that it is the light that destroys darkness. That diversity is not something we impose, but get out of the way of, support, and let happen.
As we listen, we’ll know the right action for each of us to take.
The first step is accepting that the beauty of diversity begins with ourselves. We are each a unique expression of the Divine. We can let that diversity flourish within us and express it in a way that is entirely our own.
Step in front of the mirror and see the beauty of the universe expressed through you.
No more mowing yourself down!
It’s not a process of adding to ourselves to be ourselves.
It’s a beautiful, expansive, unique, and infinitely diverse, unfolding.
BECA LEWIS coaches, teaches, writes blogs and books, plays with art, and is addicted to reading. She lives in Ohio with her husband and has kids and grandkids scattered across the country.
