Be like the sun for grace and mercy. Be like the night to cover others’ faults. Be like running water for generosity. Be like death for rage and anger. Be like the Earth for modesty. Appear as you are. Be as you appear. –Rumi

A butterfly newly emerged from its chrysalis must wait patiently for its wings to dry. The same is true of dragonflies, but they emerge from a naiad, which is an exoskeleton they occupy while living in the water eating voraciously in order to turn into the winged jewels we see darting about grabbing mosquitoes and flies out of the air. And while they wait patiently for their wings to dry, butterflies and dragonflies are extremely vulnerable. In both cases they have come out of a protective “shell” of sorts but cannot employ their primary mode of defense from being preyed…

“When Death Comes” When death comes like the hungry bear in autumn; when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse to buy me, and snaps the purse shut; when death comes like the measle-pox when death comes like an iceberg between the shoulder blades, I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering: what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness? And therefore I look upon everything as a brotherhood and a sisterhood, and I look upon time as no more than an idea, and I consider eternity as another possibility,…

Ask the beasts and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you; ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. –God to Job (Ch. 12) Oh, if we would but learn to listen! To hear the stories our fellow creatures tell! We would occupy our own skin and muscle and bone more fully, inhabit our planet graciously, be present to the divine DNA in our fellow humans… in all that is.

I want not only to observe but to know living things, and this implies a dimension of primordial familiarity which is simple and primitive and religious and poor. –Thomas Merton