Follow The Horse Dung
Cleveland, Ohio
From a short essay on Vaishnava Christian dialogue by Professor Jon Pohl is excerpted here a piece about his revelation when he, a Christian, took a trek in the woods with some Vaishnavas:
“We talked and laughed and prayed and walked in silence amid the beauty of the trees and crunch of the ground under our feet. And it persuaded me then as it continues to do today, that our shared inheritance of the ‘field of truth’ poses for us the greatest battle, the greatest adventure we can possibly face… We share the inheritance of nature – a grace that is wholly unmerited, yet as necessary as it is beneficial.”
After a short flight to Cleveland, I asked Jatayu, my host driver, if we could go to the Emerald Metro Park System and just catch a bit of the forest air while moving our limbs. We stuck by a cliff’s edge overlooking Rocky River, meandering along the way as we took the last bathing of the saffron sun before it disappeared.
We could see the damage done by Hurricane Sandy of last week. Some maples were downed. Whatever we saw in the way of variegated trees, it was all nature’s grace, making us feel a strong tie to the forest. Leaves, trunks, air, mud and bush and space and water and fishermen – these were the images. Basically, we just followed the trail of the horse dung. It was great, and while we were peaceful in the woods, in the nearby urban areas, the general populace was absorbed in the political excitement of voting for the next political leader of the US. I think the whole world was looking at the final tally of votes.
7 KM
No comments:
Post a Comment