One day in particular is etched in my memory. It was in late October, and Maureen had stayed after school for a meeting. As I walked home alone, I drank in the deep blue sky. The trees were turning, and the world was gold, bronze, and scarlet. Leaves were skittering across the yards. Just near the hospital, before I turned south toward our house, I stopped in wonder at the sight of a crimson maple. It was a tree full of wind, its leaves shimmying in a manner that reminded me of a Van Gogh tree.
The afternoon sun enflamed the tree. I was stilled by amazement, not moving and barely breathing. Perhaps I was witnessing the Kansas equivalent of the biblical burning bush. As I beheld this blazing maple, I learned a deeply spiritual lesson about how the world, uncluttered by a thought-stream, could dazzle and exhilarate. I was totally awake to the perfection of the universe and grounded in absolute reality, more beautiful and transparent than the world we call real. Over and over, I have found rescue in these burning tree moments.
- Mary Pipher, A Life in Light, p 118-119.
The afternoon sun enflamed the tree. I was stilled by amazement, not moving and barely breathing. Perhaps I was witnessing the Kansas equivalent of the biblical burning bush. As I beheld this blazing maple, I learned a deeply spiritual lesson about how the world, uncluttered by a thought-stream, could dazzle and exhilarate. I was totally awake to the perfection of the universe and grounded in absolute reality, more beautiful and transparent than the world we call real. Over and over, I have found rescue in these burning tree moments.
- Mary Pipher, A Life in Light, p 118-119.
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