Parable goes:
The butterfly lands in the 1,000-year old Sequoia and lives her entire life there. (Approx. 5 days) At the end of that time, she is asked: “Is this tree alive?” and she giggles “Of course not silly, I’ve been here my entire life, and nothing has changed at all. This tree is exactly the way it was when my life began…”
We are all butterflies, my friends. Our time here is so precious! We live our entire lives and it’s just a blip on a blink of a a misschievous wink of Gaia’s warming grin… “Of course the Earth isn’t alive. What are you some tree hugger?! It’s a dang PLANET. Its a rock hurling through empty space. It sure ain’t changing during my lifetime…” Yes, little butterfly, from one perspective you are right… because that is what you allow your little fuzzy antennae to tell you.
Its common, normal, almost universal, to live our entire lives and never notice the sentient Earth beneath our feet. Why? Why? Because there is a cost to noticing. Ever notice that? At all times, there is a cost to noticing… So we’d rather take the easier route. The sad thing is: It’s NOT really hard to notice. It’s just, it’s just a little bit easier if we DON’T. Our lives go by in a flash, in a puff of bad jokes, filled cavities, and bad hair styles. Time flies by us in birthday pinatas and catheters, puppies and diplomas, diapers on each end. We have so many issues to deal with, so many challenges, oh and by the way can you believe the DMV registration fees this year?! and the milk is spilled again and our 5 days here seems like an entire lifetime of learning and play and love and joy and at the bottom of it… we all too rarely STOP and LISTEN.
What then is available to us, as we quiet down and pay attention? Ahhh, an excellent question! We find that most mystical of experiences: The essence of humility. We find our place as an equal, as a cell, as a being worthy of all the support and blessings of infinity. We are embraced by fractals and blown glass. We are on a blind date with the Bernouli Principle, we’re slime-deep in the slow motion of a miracle. We find reverence.
Can business leaders BE in that place, for a New York minute, please…?
