World of green and blue, spark of Life renewed...

Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night. ~Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke

Spring is finally upon us here in the secluded mountains, and I envy those in the lowlands that have been able to see flowers bloom weeks earlier, and felt the warm sunshine on their faces. This winter has been a particularly harsh and unforgiving one, with many trees falling on homes, and power outages. However, we must remember that winter must make its course, just as all seasons must. Without winter, the flora and fauna of the world would have no rest period, no time to hibernate or become dormant as the trees do. The world would remain in constant motions of life, which is not the natural way.
Just as we must die one day, Nature must die in the Winter to be reborn in the Spring. Life without Death and Rebirth is unnatural, for life must constantly renew itself. The trees must lose their leaves and become dormant, as sleeping giants. The bears and great beasts of these mountains must hibernate, so that when the sun returns they will have the energy for populating. The birds, in all their colorful plumage, fly to warmer climes, leaving us here without the bright little comfort of hearing their singing when the sun rises. Many plant species hold their seeds deep within the cold Earth, so that the sun will resurrect them in the spring, and their species may continue.
The ancients believed that Death was as much a part of Life as Life itself, and somewhere along the way, humankind has forgotten this. Because of our culture, our media, it has become commonplace for death to be feared; to be feared as something terrible and awful. We are taught to believe that at the moment of our death, all the things we have done in our lives will be reviewed and judged, and we should fear it. But for something to die without rebirth is just not how Nature operates.
It is truly incredible to contemplate how Nature and the seasons effect our lives. For some, they change with the seasons, for others, they remain the same year-round. The seasons effect us, whether we realize it or not, and we must accept the change. Sometimes phases or chapters in our lives will die out, as Nature will die out in the winter, only to be reborn when things get better, as in the Spring. Our soul is a season, and we must not forget it. A human soul is going through constant seasons, even if they are not parallel to the seasons outside. A cold and dark winter may come for a human soul in the dead of summer, when a life has lost it's way, it's path, and is becoming colder and colder by the day. Or a soul may experience a spring, a renewal of life and promises in the middle of winter. It truly is remarkable how very much we imitate Nature, and it is equally remarkable how few of us realize it.

To Err is Human, To Learn Anew is Divine

It is a grave mistake in judgment for anyone to assume that they truly know the identity of anyone else. We, as the presumptuous and arrogant creatures we are, are fond of thinking that our surroundings are always crystal clear, and that every other person in this world of ours lives in glass houses, with all their secrets and mysteries clear to the world. The truth is, whether our hypocritical personae allow us to see it or not, no one human can ever know everything there is to know about another. There will always be new facets of their personality, new dimensions of a person that were previously unseen, and this will prevent the average person from trusting without consequence.

They say that it is possible to trust on faith. To trust that a person you may know and love, or a perfect stranger as a matter of fact, they say, is god-like. To trust in the goodness of humans is what has been preached to us for so long. But for us to err so extensively that we would believe that people can be easily read, that they can be seen for what they are with our frail and deceiving eyes, is prominent on the list of the numerous human flaws. Can you honestly say, without a shadow of a doubt, that you know everything there is to know about someone close to you? Your husband or wife? Your mother or father?

We, as much unlike the divine as we are, have secrets that we can never tell. There are always deep and dark recesses within us, little nooks and crannies, where we like to hide events or memories in our lives that may be sacred to us, or perhaps it is things about us that we just don't wish to share. We like to tuck away all the little imperfections about us so that we are not belittled in the perception of others. But just as drinking a toxic dose of poison, hiding things from not only yourself, but from others, for mere vanity, is hazardous. We cannot trust in our own instincts to protect us from the secrets of others, or even our own.

Do not assume you know anything about me, even if you've known me for most of the years of my life. And I shall return the courtesy of not assuming that I know you.

We must create the antidote for our own poison...