Last Thursday, I was on campus late. I had just finished attending a wonderful lecture by a visiting scholar, Dr. Sawyer Kemp, and I was walking from the Memorial Ballroom back to my car. The wind was blowing in the way that wind often does—majestically and softly. I stopped at the big tree near Carnegie.
I notice this tree a lot.
I often find myself wanting to wrap my arms around it.
What is it about this beautiful tree?
There are times in my life when I feel the Divine in nature. I am known for asking, “Do you feel God in that rock?” I have been known to weep at Collins Creek near Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. My grandmother’s name was Collins.
Ram Dass once said, “The Universe is an example of love. Like a tree. Like the ocean. Like my body. Like my wheelchair. I see the love.” What a beautiful and radical way to see the world, a place where love (and maybe even the Divine) pulses through everything!
I had a great spiritual awakening in my thirty-ninth year. I more sharply began to see God in all people; it was something I believed—the way one may believe that the stars shine to remind us of wishing and hoping—but I really started to feel in the very core of my being that God lives in all. Years later, I still carry this with me. When I look at my students, I see God. When I look at my coworkers, I see God. When I look at the big tree near Carnegie, I see God.
What would our world be like if we saw the Divine in each face we encountered? Would we forgive more? We would judge less? Would we love unconditionally? I leave you with these questions, dear reader. I leave you with hope for seeing beauty and goodness in each other. I leave you with a prayer for love and all things holy to be present for you each day.