Dear Reader,

How are you? I hope this finds you well. I know many of us are living through very difficult things; whether it's storms or illnesses, economic insecurity, political anxiety or violence, I hold you in my thoughts. We are all individuals, and yet, we are also in this together.

I got back from leading a beautiful retreat at Omega last week where I was almost completely unplugged. Spending time in community reminded me of how precious each of us is and how connected we all are. Today, I want to share with you a passage (below) about interconnection.

The passage is one of my favorite teachings by Buddhist monk and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh.

Interbeing
​From Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh

If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper.

The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are. “Interbeing” is a word that is not in the dictionary yet, but if we combine the prefix “inter-” with the verb “to be,” we have a new verb, inter-be. Without a cloud and the sheet of paper inter-are.

If we look into this sheet of paper even more deeply, we can see the sunshine in it. If the sunshine is not there, the forest cannot grow. In fact, nothing can grow. Even we cannot grow without sunshine.

And so, we know that the sunshine is also in this sheet of paper. The paper and the sunshine inter-are. And if we continue to look, we can see the logger who cut the tree and brought it to the mill to be transformed into paper. And we see the wheat.

We know the logger cannot exist without his daily bread, and therefore the wheat that became his bread is also in this sheet of paper. And the logger’s father and mother are in it too. When we look in this way, we see that without all of these things, this sheet of paper cannot exist.

Looking even more deeply, we can see we are in it too. This is not difficult to see, because when we look at a sheet of paper, the sheet of paper is part of our perception. Your mind is in here and mine is also.

So we can say that everything is in here with this sheet of paper. You cannot point out one thing that is not here-time, space, the earth, the rain, the minerals in the soil, the sunshine, the cloud, the river, the heat. Everything co-exists with this sheet of paper.

That is why I think the word inter-be should be in the dictionary. “To be” is to inter-be. You cannot just be by yourself alone. You have to inter-be with every other thing. This sheet of paper is, because everything else is.

Suppose we try to return one of the elements to its source. Suppose we return the sunshine to the sun. Do you think that this sheet of paper will be possible? No, without sunshine nothing can be.

And if we return the logger to his mother, then we have no sheet of paper either. The fact is that this sheet of paper is made up only of “non-paper elements.” And if we return these non-paper elements to their sources, then there can be no paper at all.

Without “non-paper elements,” like mind, logger, sunshine and so on, there will be no paper. As thin as this sheet of paper is, it contains everything in the universe in it.

When I read this passage, my nervous system calms down. I, too, am like the paper; each of us contains everything in the universe in us. What does that mean to you? What resonates (or doesn't resonate) here for you?

As writers, creatives, meditators, we have a choice about how we approach the world around and within us.

I hope you have a good long weekend!

with love and smiles,
Nadia

PS: We have an important election coming up here in the States—stay tuned next week for some resources I'll be offering to stay balanced and also take action.

PPS: To those celebrating Yom Kippur, I wish you a good holy day. May there be peace for all people.