An artichoke heart.
The mudflats at low tide.
Hot lava.
A flower stamen.
Guts of a leaf, dog, sea star, ourselves.
The natural world reflects back to us infinite
images of the soft core potential Life carries. All life. Us, too.
The natural disasters in subsistence landscapes. Wars,
riots, contentious politics. The ecotone between hardness and vulnerability.
A boy hurls a rock in the shape of profanity at an
innocent passerby. She could have reacted unkindly, from her own outer crust.
Instead, this woman I know chose to move into her own vulnerable core: to see the damage to his tender heart that has
compelled him to become stone cold, hard, aggressive. She found her own gentle
beauty in that moment instead of defaulting to mean retort. The wisdom of her
life told her she could remain safe; the wisdom of her heart spoke volumes
about his need for love.
Sympathy toward harshness.
Kindness in the face of adversity.
Warmth facing animosity.
Goodness greeting toughness.
Compassion in the moment of cruelty.
It feels like we really can practice getting softer, riper, gentler as we live through
worlds of hostility. Move closer in for a better look. See how the anger is
belied by a naked underbelly.
It is within every one of us: the ability for compassion,
the ability for destruction.
Where within yourself can you find the seed with the
potential to flourish rather than decay? How can you learn to grow rather than
stagnate? To become fluid rather than stuck?
Because it does start with each one of us. We can no
longer afford to point the finger outward; let’s do away with pointing at all.
Let us simply commit to being with our own nature. To finding that soft center.
All blog images created & photographed by Jennifer J. Wilhoit unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: "©2015 JenniferJWilhoit/TEALarbor stories. AllRightsReserved."
