In Elizabeth Lesser’s book Marrow, she shares the journey of her sister’s bone cancer. This book is full of wisdom, sorrow, joy, and love.
Throughout the book, the author’s sister shares her thoughts, too. Many of them center around gardening, plants, and her love of the natural world.
Both women speak often of being broken open…
As they do, I think of spring. Spring is a season of being broken open. Of starting new things.
We break the soil up after a long winter to ready it for spring.
Then we poke a hole in the soil to deposit a seed.
Finally, we tamp the soil back down to protect the seed.
That seed breaks open and pushes up, up, up.
Soon, the seed breaks the soil again as a new shoot emerges.
The new plant will break and produce a bud.
That bud might produce new leaves, or seeds, or a bloom.
And it isn’t always easy, this act of breaking open.
But it IS natural. It IS Nature’s way. And WE are Nature, through and through.
Poet, ordained Buddhist Monk, and songwriter Leonard Cohen said it best:
“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”
If you are feeling cracked or broken, Nature asks you to take heart – without those cracks, no light could get in. No growth could take place. Those cracks open us up to SEE.