Meditation
Spring is a time of renewal. The sun’s eyes are painting the field again. The earth springs forth with new shoots—new roots even as the snow bends down the branches of the shrubs and trees. The change in the sun’s angle is perceptible almost day by day. A great palette of light has embraced the earth. The buds and leaves are unfolding. So too, as Hafiz would have it, the petals of our souls awake from winter slumber into to vitality of spring. Peel away the clouds! Blow off the dust! There is an excitement to renew the soul and body if we are to throw off the blankets of work, anxiety, despair.
We tend to think of the earth as giving life to growing things, or that it is the divine that infuses us with the energy of living. Hafiz inverts the frame, and offers this: “God has a root in each act and creature/That He draws His mysterious/Divine life from.” The divine draws its life from us. As we think about the renewal of spring, what are we doing to nourish the mysterious divine life around us?
Todd Breyfogle
Denver, Colorado
