Being In Nature

I was walking out in the woods, and I saw a fallen log, so I sat down, got quiet, and went into a state of meditation for a very long period of time. In that state, I could feel as if I could feel the sap running through the heartwood of the trees around me, like it was the blood running through my own veins. I could feel the wind as it moved through the trees, both the sound it was making and how it came through in different variations from the trees and the leaves. I could feel when the leaves moved because the canopy above would shift, and little sparkles of light would come through and then disappear. I literally felt one with nature at a profound level. After a period of time, I do not know how long because I was not keeping track, I began to open my eyes. Out in front of me, I saw a white tailed deer looking at me. Then I saw a rabbit, a squirrel, and birds. It seemed so normal, but there was a sense that maybe nature was also experiencing something extraordinary and felt very safe. Then something else happened that was incredibly memorable. As I was sitting there, a shaft of light came out of a small aperture in the canopy above, where leaves had not grown. It was just one little opening where the light came through. All of a sudden, next to me on the bare earth, there was one flower that had sprung up with orange and purple leaves, and the light was shining directly on that flower. It spoke to me about the mystery of the human condition, because I wondered about all the conditions that had to line up for that to happen, that seed, however it got there, maybe a bird, maybe the wind, the moisture that had to be there, how the leaves and the trees grew so that there was just one opening, so that the sun could get through and fall on that flower. It showed me this is the mystery of the human experience, right here. This is the mystery of being alive as human. It was that series of experiences that made me realize that the purpose of life is like the purpose of the flower, to bloom and to love.