You're a Reference Point

Each of us is an energetic anchor point. Each, in a slightly different way.

As I gaze up at a beautiful old tree, I notice the incredible amount of work it has done to grow into what it is. Limbs branching out from limbs. Fractal-like fingers with leafy bud tips. An elegantly simple, seasonal solution resulting in a complex, forking nexus.

It reminds me of the human nervous system, or a stream, or capillaries, or a Lichtenberg wood burning. Every interaction I have with every living thing affects both myself and that being. The tree feels like a calm, comforting presence and I’m sure I’m not the only one sensing this. To the squirrels and birds also, it is a place to be safe.

In the words of Ram Dass “We’re all just walking each-other home.”

Where is home? We don’t know — but we are drawn to this unknown place through resonance with likeness, or the realisation that likeness is lacking. The world forms itself to our path as we decide what to make of things.

To walk beside is to move through. To move through is to grow. It seems each of us needs to experience leading and being lead, and so our lives take us through opportune stages: conception, infancy, childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, adulthood and so on. The inhabitants of the tree can only grow because the tree has grown.

For the striving mind, it’s easier to understand how growth works in the first half of life, and harder to see the point in old age. We all need to experience growth but we can only grow as much as the world grows. The world is slow to change — and that’s what keeps it just stable enough. It takes a lot of life force to carve new markings in the earth — a continuous spirit full of love and exploration, through many generations of hands, hearts and voices.

If an old tree has grown well, it will bring joy to the forest. If an old man or woman has aged well, they will bring joy to their community. Perhaps the goal of growing old enough is simply to have grown wise and joyful enough, and in doing so, show the young how to live beautifully through change. And when enough has been shown, showing is no longer enough. The path must be lived, and roles must be exchanged.

There is something incredibly loving and devoted in stepping back. The final stage of leadership is allowing space for the younger generation to truly live. Living is learning. Learning is making mistakes — and mistakes can be a fast route to progress. Once a grand old being has lived well enough and imparted the most important qualities, the best result for others is achieved by letting them lead.

So with greater time on the earth comes greater capacity for devotion. If devotion is the merging of self and other, such that the other’s gain is one’s own. So, you are a reference point. An energetic anchor. The way you meet what you don’t yet understand is the way the world will meet its future. And the way you live each and every moment, until the end, is your gift to the world.