Sunday, April 29, 2007

An "Oh My God" Moment



I had one of those moments this morning during my drive into work. I drive into the office between six and seven AM. The early hour gives me many opportunities to appreciate the morning light. Today was very special. I came to an intersection and stopped for a red light. Facing east, I noticed about five or six trees of varying heights, alone on a hilly field. Behind the trees was the remnants of a fog bank, which seemed to grow less dense, the closer it came. The trees looked ethereal, there in the fog, their branches not just growing skyward, but clearly reaching – outstretched. Baby leaves adorned each branch – the beginning of another cycle of life.


The sun was just over the horizon behind the trees, and provided the most amazing backlight for this display. It added to the dramatic effect of the fog in ways I lack the skill to describe. It was definitely an “Oh my God” moment. I sat there for the remainder of the traffic light staring at the trees, and inside I became very quiet. It was then that I realized the trees weren’t just reaching skyward adorned with life, but that they were praying. I could almost hear them, there in the fog, backlit by an amazing sunrise, beginning their day together in prayer, and not the slightest bit distracted by me in my car. I've never seen trees pray before. I will try to remember to be quiet. The rewards are indescribable.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lovely photos and post, Dennis. I'm having a similar experience reading "Living Buddha, Living Christ."

"Springtime is at hand. When will you ever bloom if not here and now?"
--Thich Nhat Hanh

(I have now found a blog site that I am happy with. :) http://rsmusings.vox.com. Hope you'll stop by some time. If you'd like to leave a comment, but not register, just send me an email, link at the top left sidebar.)

Hope your day is filled with more "praying trees" moments of awareness!
-R

Anonymous said...

Robin - Thanks so much for the invitation and the lovely thoughts! I'll most definitely stop by, now that you have some roots!

D

Anonymous said...

I love moments like that. Sigh. Thanks for this vicarious one.

Joy said...

Such lovely pictures Dennis, thank you for sharing :)

angie said...

Very cool - the pictures and the writing. Love thinking of trees as praying - thanks for that.

Anonymous said...

You have to express more your opinion to attract more readers, because just a video or plain text without any personal approach is not that valuable. But it is just form my point of view