looking

This past weekend we visited the Chickering Bog, and the White Mountains. We spent a lot of time peering into small flowers, and looking out over large vistas from the tops of high mountains. I was reminded of a trip to Yosemite many years ago. It was at a family reunion, and one afternoon some of us took a hike. I remember walking on a dusty trail along a canyon wall high up in the mountains. We came to a place where a trickle of water was sprinkling itself down the wall. There was a bush opportunistically growing there, and there were tiny wildflowers in bloom. I remember looking into the center of the flowers. No matter how far I looked in, there seemed to be interesting & minuscule aspects of the flower that were just beyond the limits of my vision.

When I turned 180 degrees, I confronted the vastness of Yosemite from a high place on a clear day. You could see a long ways, but there were miles and miles of scenery that were way out of my range.


I spent quite awhile turning & turning; looking in as far as possible, and then out. It occurred to me that in the grand scheme of things, my size must be about halfway between the largest & the smallest things in our universe. Later on it seemed possible that if you were a sentient atom, or conscious galaxy, you might feel essentially the same way. No matter what your size, or how much you squint in, or peer out, you're going to bump into the limitations of your senses, and feel pretty much in the middle of things.

The largest is the smallest, too.
Here limitations have no place...

Affirming Faith in Mind.