When you are open to it, inspiration can come from anywhere, or anyone, and at any time. And sometimes you just have to piece it all together. Walking behind various machines over the weekend as I tended to my lawn, intently focused on the 18” strip right in front of me for hours on end, I got pretty familiar with the terrain – a rise here, a ridge there, a valley or dip over yonder. I felt that some of the equipment just “rode” the natural contours of the land, and I let it, choosing not to fight the machine and force it to where I wanted it to go. It was following a natural curve, obeying the laws of nature. I realized that the same thing happens in farms all across the country at this time of year. Farmers don’t set out to create art as they carve their tractors through the fields. They are too utilitarian for that. Yet the fields are a work of art, the fine parallel curves that seem to perfectly match, accentuate and even highlight the flow of terrain. And when the soft muted light of a later dawn hits them, it is magical. (PLEASE CLICK ON THE TITLE ABOVE TO CONTINUE READING.)
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My thoughts continued. Does the farmer need to actually be an expert in physics and curvilinear geometry to drive that tractor? I doubt it. He just follows the terrain in harmony with the laws of nature, including gravity and balance. I formed a picture in my head – an experienced old man watching a young amateur who might cut up the land, driving as if he were in control, racing to “get done”. That image helped me to learn the lesson being presented to me in that moment– experience is mostly about the wisdom to appreciate and follow natural laws, to surrender a need to control the situation. It comes when you realize or can admit that the other alternative is, in the long run, futile. I immediately thought of hundreds of examples in my own life in all kinds of various situations where this was true. I thought of only a few where it wasn’t. I didn’t let them bother me or get hung up in a burden of “proof”. As so many of you know by now, I rely on the words of songs for inspiration, and consistently come back to a few artists whose work I admire. The lyrics that fit this situation for me and enhanced that lesson were from a Dan Fogelberg song: “Now there's laws that we must live by but they're not the laws of man Can't you see the shadow that moves across this land?” My day continued, the equipment was washed down and put away. I stood in line at a nearby store way too long for my contemplated transaction. I listened to the discussion playing out in front of me. The gentle man at the counter, a native of these parts, was describing the love and joy he and his wife share for the caring of their granddaughter, Emily. Emily’s mom, their daughter, has had cancer since the age of 17. After a bit more about Emily, he finally said, “What I’ve learned is that it’s about re-adjusting, re-aligning, re-balancing and re-playing”. He said that last word so specifically in his laconic Southern drawl that I knew he meant “to play again” and not “to do it over”. He knows that the laws he is living by are not the laws of man. Like the equipment on my lawn, that field in miniature, he is following and not fighting natural laws, knowing there are things he just cannot control. Looking at him, I smiled to myself, as it seemed at first a stretch to attach the word “grace” to him… but what other word would you use? |