The Aliveness of All Things
I was once married to a man, wonderful in many ways, who scoffed at my ideas about how everything, whether conventionally thought of as alive or not, is in truth alive and has some form of consciousness. Which means, therefore, that one could communicate with anything.
I haven't forgotten that; I even wrote a very short poem about it, which I will quote in a bit. And I do truly know that what we are talking about is a matter of belief to a great extent--even when I communicate with things, my stern scientific upbringing reminds me that one must always be open to ALL possibilities, including the possibility that one is deluding oneself. But then, the fact is that I sense/feel/know the truth of what I am feeling, and I know that one of the things I have to teach others is how I learned (and am still learning) how to trust myself.
In this case, in my feeling of connectedness and awareness with all living things...a feeling that is more sometimes, and less others, but always there. Out of that I have come to believe that all things are living, even the rocks and hills and water and other things traditionally thought of as inanimate. Certainly they may not seem to move of their own volition, but there is life there.
If you prefer, you can think of the rocks and hills as spirits dreaming of themselves as rocks and hills, if that makes you more comfortable. Just be aware that some spirits are more awake than others, even among those who are supposedly the living. :-)
Here is the poem, short and to the point. My commentary on this poem is, "Some people live in a dead world and pity those of us who speak with rocks. In the end, who is the richer? Who the poorer?"
Dry Times
He lives in a dead world
The sticks and stones speak
But he hears only silence
And a vast dry wind that blows all help away.
Copyright 1990 by Marina Michaels