Ready?
OK, here we go:
Back to the very beginning......and life as it really is.
Why are we here? Simply to exist, experience life, reproduce and die?
Maybe.
It sure looks like that's why everything else is here---trees, flowers, creepy
crawlies, fish, animals, birds and bees---30 million different kinds of things
that live, and yet, 99% of ALL species that have ever lived on planet Earth
are extinct.
GONE! (or as my delightful children's character Pussyraptor would
say, "GONE-SES!").
Do snakes go to heaven? (I hope not...or I'll have some explaining to do about
that episode in Baja). Or do they simply die, like everything else? What happens
to us?
Well, we know we die like everything else....but then what happens? Anything?
Nothing?
One of the two.
Let's see if we can figure this all out by looking without and then looking
within for some kinds of evidence. There must be some clues somewhere.
The first place to look is all around us. What do we see? Where, exactly, are
we? We see life, we see planet Earth, and at night we see........THE UNIVERSE.
Cha-CHINNNG!
You're not on the Low Road anymore....there are no potholes here, only limitless
possibilities. You already possess all the secrets of life.
You always have.
As you read this, remember: if it feels
right, it probably is right.
Let's begin.
Everything we do in life, everything
we are (including snakes), is a complete reflection---a mirror
image---a microcosm---a model, if you will, of Existence. We are
in 'miniature' what Existence is in 'maxiature.'
It's only recently that 'our' civilized, educated biologists and
ecologists 'discovered' that our eco-system is totally integrated,
with everything affecting everything else in the balance of nature.
Something any native in any jungle, rain forest, or plains could
have told us forty thousand years ago. Western civilization likes
to measure things and places little credence on 'feeling' things
(very male).
'If it can't be measured then it can't exist.' Yeah, OK.
Here's a measurement for you: 99% of our DNA is EXACTLY the same
as that of a chimpanzee, and 60% of our DNA is EXACTLY the same
as a banana. How do you like them apples? (I wonder if
we're closer to an apple...or a banana??).
Try to clear your mind of all your thoughts and take some time
to look in your garden, walk in the park, or get out into the
countryside and plonk yourself down somewhere and look---LOOK
at all the life around you....at all the little miracles crawling
around and springing up everywhere you gaze your eyes. Let what
you see wash over you. You are life and you are surrounded by
life---it's unstoppable, it's ubiquitous, it's The Whole Enchilada
(I hope you like Mexican food). It's all connected. We
are all part of each other because it's the same force that drives
us all.
Don't read the rest of this book until you have done this.
I'm serious.
How was it? Did you see anything you haven't seen before? Maybe you were humbled, maybe you felt peaceful, maybe you felt a part of it all. I hope so (maybe it was pouring with rain and all muddy and you got soaked, or it was freezing and you've got the sniffles). At least something happened.
