Decay and New Life

We had a little rain a few days ago. Enough to give the forest a foretaste of the winter rains.

This morning there was more life in the forest. Birds were out and busy. Fresh green comes out of the ground.  

As I look around to absorb the mood I am struck by all the decay. 

Leaves, dead wood and mushrooms feed the new life.

I remembered a word from a Sufi master, which I read the night before:

Everything in the world of existence has an end and a

goal. The end is maturity and the goal is freedom. For

example, fruit grows on the tree until it is ripe and then

falls. The ripened fruit represents maturity, and the fallen

fruit, freedom.

The final goal is returning to one’s origin. Everything

which reaches its origin has reached its goal. A farmer

sows grain in the ground and tends it. It begins to grow,

eventually seeds, and again becomes grain. It has returned

to its original form. The circle is complete. Completing

the circle of existence is freedom.

NASAFÎ

Everything in the forest slowly returns to its origin, loses its form and gives new life.

When the sun comes through the space created by the fallen tree, new life comes out. 

The cycle begins again.