What is Care?

Natures Heart by MK Sandford

Tree dies and falls leaving a stump standing.  Time passes and I walk past the stump. Bright green huckleberry, stately salal, and feathery fern grow from the decaying heart of the stump. We call her Nurse Tree; from her death, life has come anew. Is this not a true miracle?  A concert by cells playing together, shape energy into form, and Leaf, Root, Stem, Berry , Moss, Spore, and Lichen are born.

  

Rich green leaves fall to the earth while worms with their voracious appetites chomp them into bits; tiny bacteria feed them to the mushrooms. The Mushrooms lend their mycelia to Fir, Pine and Cedar to extend their roots. Roots carry whole food from the soil, to the base of the tree where nutrients are carried into Tree’s body. Tree grows taller; new needles, and cones flourish.

Everywhere we look in nature, there is an ‘I’ kindly nourishing a ‘you’, one hand washing the other. Care at its essence is a unique relationship, a partnership in which one aids another to live. Care surrounds us, it is in us, and it is how we got where we are. Where Life is, there is Care; where Care is, there is Life.  Quiet your mind. Breathe. Be still and know that I Am the Great Mystery. Open your heart you’ll be amazed at what can happen next.