Time and Nature: A Parable

When did the Universe begin? 

Well, my love, that is a very big question with a tiny little answer: 

It didn’t.

There is only the spiraling web of Time’s connections.

When we still our bodies and quiet our minds, once in a while, we can glimpse Time’s complexity: a labyrinthine path meandering between past and future. Now is a moment, a breath, a glimmer, an intuition. 

Nature weaves Time’s silken threads into the stunning tapestry of physical existence.

Time is the philosopher.

Nature is the artisan.

Our story, the human story, begins when we first gained awareness of Time. 

Before, After, Later

Entangled with all, the light and the dark, there is Time. Time arranges infinite patterns of cosmic dust and rhythmic waves. For a moment, or an eon, there is balance, fragile, magnificent, temporary. 

In our eon, Time coalesced cosmic dust and set Nature to her work. Earth was forged, clothed in water and rock, swaddled in air, and warmed by the Sun. In Time, Nature molded the elements to embellish her creation: plants, animals, and, eventually, humans.

One evening, the woman and the man lay on the soft grass, side by side, hand in hand, gazing at the stars. The air was warm and scented with jasmine. A brilliant light streaked across the sky. A tremendous “BOOM” silenced the birds as the ground lurched beneath them.

The woman wondered out loud, “What would have happened to us if that star landed here?” 

The man had witnessed a power strong enough to move the earth and imagined the devastation: trees bursting into flames as the trembling ground collapsed into a yawning chasm. The warmth of the woman’s hand in his drew his attention to his companion and the life they had in front of them. Before, life was gentle and moved in a predictable rhythm of dewy mornings and jasmine scented nights.  But now… he knew the enormous emptiness he would feel if she were not there, next to him.  With clarity so sudden and visceral it took his breath away, the man realized their lives depended solely on Nature’s goodwill. He did not know how to be both content and vulnerable. He no longer trusted Nature. He felt an urge to flee the place where they had all they needed in search of a place where he felt protected. Maybe, he thought, there are forces greater than Nature. He said to the woman, “We must find a safer place; someplace far from the fallen star where we can build a strong shelter.” 

The woman was awed by the beauty of the falling star. She experienced the explosion of light and sound and the tumult of the earth as a glorious display of the majesty of Nature. The woman had no desire to leave the garden as it had always provided for them. Then, as tiny feet jostled inside her, the woman imagined the risks of being alone to birth her baby. She thought about the hardships of raising a child without a helpmeet. What would happen to her child if she died? She was overcome with feelings of love for the child yet to be and the man whose hand she held fast. The thought of losing either filled her with despair. 

She told the man of the new life growing in her. She put his hand on the curve of her belly and he felt the movement of the baby within. “We have reason to stay. We have what we need. We have been happy here and our child will know Nature’s beauty and generosity.”

“Nature has the power to move the Earth. I do not trust her to care for us and our child. We cannot depend on Nature to always know and meet our needs.  Her beauty and generosity keep us bound to her. I see that clearly now. We have comfort, but we do not have freedom. I cannot stay and I cannot go without you, just as you could not leave without me.”

Together they set out, one with a heavy heart, in the opposite direction of where the star had come to Earth, to find a place of refuge. 

That is how they came to leave the place where they had all they needed to find a place where they felt safe. They began to imagine a future fraught with dangers they could not control and they knew fear. Being happy and having what they needed became less important than satisfying their need to feel secure. And, because no place was ever quite what they thought they wanted, they were never quite happy again.

The precarious, glorious balance designed by Time and crafted by Nature, wobbled. Brilliance seeped into darkness, and order eroded into chaos.

Bringing an ending, and so, a beginning.