Apprenticeship of/by/for Nature

Dedicated to the land at Tunitas Creek Ranch and the banana slug: who lives the sensuality of the "not-quite-touch". She lives intimately with all she touches, never once breaking contact.

What is it to walk through the world in a way that eschews our predatory nature?

In the mere act of 'looking for things', we pierce with our gaze, we penetrate with insight. What would it mean to simply be receptive? Perhaps it enters the world of listening; allowing the world to enter through our ears, our bodies.

I watched three hawks circling and it occurred to me that our acts were not so very different: they were looking for prey; I was looking for inspiration - something to feed my hungry soul. I began to wonder about the long evolution of predator/prey relationships. Since the first cell that devoured its own kind, life has fed off of life. I began to look around at the myriad forms of predation: The spider meticulously builds her web of silk - invisible unless dampened by dew or catching the light in just the right way - and waits for her prey to come to her. The snake smells the air with her tongue, noticing subtle changes in her energy field; she strikes like quicksilver. There are no second thoughts. The trees simply receive and grow both towards light above and sustenance below, her roots are the predator, constantly probing the earth for the water and minerals that keep her alive.

I inhabit all these realms and all these spirits inhabit me: My spirit is the plant - at once growing towards the heavens and simultaneously reaching down into Mother Earth for grounding and nourishment. I am the hawk - ever-circling to spy something that moves (me) in my environment, to devour it and regurgitate it back with new understanding to my human family. My spider nature lives in the web of my thoughts and understandings, patiently waiting for something to send a ripple of new energy. My sensual mollusk nature relishes in touch but contracts at a nearing shadow; fearing that which it does not understand. Even my butterfly energy, flitting from bud to bud, has its purpose - it follows its allurements to probe for the nectar of love and wisdom. To be human is to discriminate the energy we manifest. My hope is that all of these beings integrate into a light that is uniquely me and that that light emanates clearly to all beings. Only then will I be truly human.