Between you and me

It was a random thought that occurred sometime during my nature jaunts (snatches of which I soak with my camera and squeeze into the hard disk). The thought slowly percolated, first in dribbles, then in a steady stream and finally became a creed.

Think of this –

If nature is the phenomena of the physical world, isn’t man part of it too? Then why do we separate ourselves from nature and view it as if we are on the other side, as spectators? Why do we split the phenomena into two – MAN & NATURE?

On its part, nature considers us integral to it and doesn’t love or loathe aspects of ours, as we do. Of this I am certain. Nature then isn’t a physical thing, it is that which integrates existence. Every little petal, mountain ridge, broken bits of seashell, call of the cuckoo, fraying fronds of the palm, erupting volcano, the crack of dawn, the breeze that lifts my hair, the snake that slithers down, the floods that swamp the earth, the rising moon, the boatman’s call, the warmth of a human bond….everything, every single thing from the tiniest to the most humongous, from the apparent to the actual – aren’t things to merely behold, but to sense, feel like we feel our very presence, moment by moment. A relationship not based on mere symbiotic dependence, but of unified existence. Damn! isn’t this so easy to see, as easy as daylight? That you and me aren’t separate, the sea and the surf aren’t different, and the body and the breath aren’t two!

I wonder if this thought will stay constant with me and if this will be the realm on which I will spend every sentient day of my life, for alas, material life is much more than random thoughts and realizations that happen during nature walks. Everyday life distracts, calls for acts and charades that alienate us from that which we are. But then again, I am reminded, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

It is this word of God that keeps me deeply entrenched in Life, and somewhere out there, the lines begin to blur. In those open vistas, there is no ‘You and I’. There is only Love. And of that Love, we become natural parts.

Come to think of it, there is nothing BETWEEN you and me.

#NotesFlashFiction