Down through the walnut orchards to the creek bank

to walk by new meanders and muddy channels

from two days of rain, breathing in

the algae-like smell, wet muck, soaked grass,

spicy nutmeg scents from weeds and eucalyptus.

In a flash of reborn faith, immediately hooked

into the amazing embrace, gravity pull of the cosmos,

touching on all vast and hopeful earth-bound flickers,

I find my orbit closing in on the reality of truth,

seeking acts of service needed to create beauty,

lessons in honesty, loving, growing goodness,

helping the world take a step out of darkness

into the light.

Before this realization of life energy, of Absolute being

underneath all manifestation, I saw only

random motion, fruitfulness and decay,

sweet stench of decaying grass,

earth biology creating variety, no underlying unity.

 

Without this world of greed and cruelty,

this deception, dishonesty, exploitation

surrounding us every day I would not have seen

God’s plan standing out so clear in the blue

autumn sky tinged with faint clouds,

kestrels in the poplar trees, shorn of leaves,

red autumn colors, weeds in the creek,

yellow leaves against the dull straw husk

of oat grass, dead gray of wintering plants.

On this old railroad bed, human aspiration

rising anew.

Jesus said: "Nevertheless, I declare to you, except a man be born of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. But you should not marvel that I said you must be born from above. When the wind blows, you hear the rustle of the leaves, but you do not see the wind—whence it comes or whither it goes—and so it is with everyone born of the spirit. With the eyes of the flesh you can behold the manifestations of the spirit, but you cannot actually discern the spirit." (142:6.5)