I spent a couple of hours this morning in the woods. Nearing the summer solstice, the sunlight has a quality of depth and richness. Working along, pulling garlic mustard plants, I found that my tai chi practice had changed the way that I move. I felt more deliberate, more balanced, my arm flowing out to take a plant, then drawing it smoothly back to put in my bag.
Birdsong filled the air - the call of a wood thrush and the cat bird's stream of chirps, squeaks and whistles. A cool breeze rustled through the canopy of leaves, making the light shimmer. I pulled up a wineberry plant and was amazed at the variety of small, wiggling things teeming in the soil.
We were working not far from the Beltway. The stillness of the woods and the richness of life all around me seemed far away from the hum and roar of cars and trucks hurrying by beyond the concrete wall.
More and more, I identify not only with my human-ness, but with the broader community of life. The oak trees, the ferns, the cat birds, the dragonfly. Like me, they're constructed from a molecular program, the stuff of the earth and the energy of the sun. And like me, every individual being is unique, and utterly dispensable. I wonder if anyone has calculated the total number of DNA molecules on the planet.
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