I woke up in the middle of the night, last night. I found myself remembering my son’s first steps. The pride on his face and mine. The look on his face as I turned around to see that he had pulled himself up from the floor and was holding onto the sofa. So many beautiful milestones!
I then imagined a pig watching her babies move around for the first time. I then saw her in a “farrowing crate”, where she couldn’t turn around to see them. So many images flooded my mind.
I then contemplated on what makes us all sentient. How, in a vast universe of rocks and water and gravity and so much more, somehow neurons come together to create thought. The divine in the universe, as it creates those capable of knowing themselves and glimpsing the smallest aspects of itself.
This spark is life, but is even more. It is life knowing itself.
Do you imagine the mother pig or cow or goat or horse has less pride in her children than I had in mine? Open your heart to yourself, others and the universe at large. That spark is all around you, if you start to look for it.
May all beings know peace!
Aroha nui,
Gerald Tūruapō Jordan, MBA, MEd, MCouns