Journeying more deeply into our deepest center and into the world around us pushes us into seeing more deeply into all of life. Not only are we forced to deal with the illusions of our false selves, but also of society. ... The one who begins to live deeply as a contemplative begins to see things as they really are. We are called to deal with the illusions of ourselves, so we can enter into a loving dialogue with the world. We are called to EMBRACE the world as we journey deeper and deeper into ourselves and God. We turn with a singleness of vision, to see God in each new situation, in every person, and every experience -- seeing all those things in a truer perspective.
"Tell me the weight of a snowflake," a coal-mouse asked a wild dove. "Nothing more than nothing," was the answer.
"In that case I must tell you a marvelous story," the coal-mouse said. "I sat on a branch of a fir, close to its trunk, when it began to snow, not heavily, not in a giant blizzard, no, just like in a dream, without any violence. Since I didn't have anything better to do, I counted the snow-flakes settling on the twigs and needles of my branch. Their number was exactly 3,741,952. When the next snowflake dropped onto the branch–nothing more than nothing, as you say–the branch broke off."
Having said that, the coal-mouse flew away. The dove, since Noah's time an authority on the matter; thought about the story for a while and finally said to herself: "Perhaps there is only one person's voice lacking for peace to come about in the world."
~ from NEW FABLES THUS SPOKE--"The Caribou" by Kurt Kauter
