We have the potential to become like a tree planted by the stream.
Like the tree, we need nurturance — both of water and of sun if
we are to blossom. We need nurturance from all the elements;
without the soil, the sun, and the air, our food will not grow.
We need nurturance from the plants. We all need human nurturance
in the form of friendship and love, and we need God's own divine
nurturance which empowers us to trust in the Author of creation.
A long and loving look at the universe we inhabit can actually change us. We can become different persons.
Prayer with nature is a passionate listening to the beating heart of the world. It is appreciation. And it is always praise.
Let us plant dates, even though those who plant them will never eat them ... We must live by the love of what we will never see. This is the secret discipline. It is a refusal to let the creative act be dissolved away in immediate sense experience, and a stubborn commitment to the future of our grandchildren. Such disciplined love is what has given prophets, revolutionaries and saints the courage to die for the future they envisaged. They make their own bodies the seed of their highest hope.
~ from TOMORROW'S CHILD by Rubem Alves with thanks to Tina Beneman
