Our hearts do not break apart, they break open.
It is through this opening that what we need tiptoes in, staying beyond our vision until we are ready to see.
This is difficult to explain. It must be lived…felt…to be understood.
Consider the way the fallen Redwood opens space in the canopy of the forest for saplings to receive sunlight. Consider how its decaying trunk provides nourishment for the forest floor and refuge for small creatures.
As we reel from the destruction of the fall we can also trust that what it has set in motion will be more generative than anything that might be gained from its perpetual and upright symmetry.
A healthy forest integrates both the broken and the whole, becoming more resilient as a result.
Our heart’s ecology is the same. When it breaks it does not pull us apart but equips us to open wider still.
Humboldt Redwood State Park – November 19, 2018
