We have projected Spirit out into the sky as a deity or God. But what if Spirit is in everything we see.
What if every cell, every atom, every element is infused with Spirit?
(And everyone can have different names for ‘Spirit’, it’s just the name I use, and that feels good for me.)
Kitchen vegetable off-cuts
The above photo is from our flower garden, which is jam-packed with flowers and the soil comes from vegetable off-cuts from our kitchen. Now, how do you get such a Garden of Eden from the vegetable off cuts? For me, it has to be because Spirit is involved in a transformation process. Apple peels, banana skins, potato skins, carrot peelings, all break down yes, but what rises up is a panoply of exquisite flowers. Lots of them self seed in the rich composted matter that the rotting vegetable off cuts dissolved into. Then the magic happens. In spring, rising up from the soil, are the vitality enfused shoots. All orchestrated by Spirit.
Goat and sheep manure
Away from the flower garden and outside the village is our vegetable garden. It runs on goat and sheep manure from a local goat farmer. This manure, combined with sun and water, is still not enough to produce the transformation into the glorious rhubarb shoots you see in the photo above. The missing ingredient, Spirit.
Something, that is way beyond our capacity to understand, occurs between all these ingredients. Can we even begin to think of the processes involved in getting from goat and sheep manure to the rhubarb flavour in the delicious tart my wife bakes? There is a transformation, an alchemical process, that happens effortlessly in the garden. Ingredients that seem hard to connect, become vital to the process, and the joy of seeing shoots coming out of the ground in late spring simply adds to the magic.
If you asked scientists to get rhubarb from goat and sheep manure, where would they even start?
And it’s not just rhubarb, the vegetables below are all part of the harvest. Goat, sheep manure and yes you guessed, Spirit.
Spirit’s Presence
It has been during the actual growing of flowers and vegetables, that I have been able to see Spirit’s vital presence. It becomes obvious that Spirit is present in the water, in the rays of the sun, in the insects that pollinate. It all seems full of this vitality. Not just alive, but activated by Spirit.
And it’s purposeful. When I see a vine tendrils winding their way around a branch, I know there is purpose behind their endeavour.
We can try and logic it out, but for me the climber is as purposeful as the microbes in the goat and sheep manure, all involved in the life imperative, Spirit’s ‘modus operandi’.
You begin to see the pattern everywhere. Spirit leaves ‘breadcrumbs’ for us to clearly see it’s presence. The results are there, yet the basic ingredients are not enough without the added Spirit presence. It’s like the team is not at full strength without Spirit there, and Spirit is always there even when I feel it’s not.
A God above and Dominion below
This vital Spirit presence that I feel everywhere, is very different from the distant God in the sky religious concept that I was raised with in Ireland. I always felt the catholic God made the earth, but wasn’t ‘in it’. He gave us dominion over it. It all seemed quite controlling. When I spent hours on the riverbank as a child, with my father and brothers fishing, I always felt I was part of a loving, benevolent, nurturing nature blanket. I couldn’t understand why the church, and it’s teachings, were so separate from this natural world. It was only when I stayed with a tribe in the highland rainforests, that I understood a different point of view was possible. A point of view that had a deep reverence to the natural world, and also felt themselves to be an integral harmonious part of it.
To actually experience this first hand was very special. I didn’t read about it, I felt how they lived this way, by living with them. Not for very long, but enough to get a sense of the difference, and to see the sacred balance that was lived by them every day. It’s not utopia by any means, but it is connected to spirit and rooted in the earth.
A moment
Recently, I had a moment in the vegetable garden where I was sitting having a rest after planting potatoes. I felt I could see Spirit in all the things, in the soil, the stones, the dead leaves, the insects, the wind. It was almost overwhelming to feel such a full presence, but the vitality was all there in practical evidence in everything around me. All the cycles were visible, from new shoots, to fruit, to detritus and on to renewal. All showing a continual momentum of purpose, which can only be another force, which I feel is Spirit. I’ve tried to keep that feeling with me, as I go about my day at my desk or out in the world.
A genuine ask
I know it’s quite subjective, but let me know how this reflects your own experience, and does it make sense to you? I think it’s amazing that this experience is available anywhere (as someone who has travelled to many far off places in search of it!), and I would love to hear about the various ways people connect to Spirit directly.
Do you feel Spirit is in everything, including the dust?
The secret to spirit lies in understanding the photon. ‘Let there be light’ is not an idle phrase.
Thank you Vincent, yes spirit is everywhere including in the things we think of as inanimate objects such as rocks. I live in the city, but I'm fortunate enough to have a balcony with a lovely cherry blossom tree, close enough that I can reach it's blossoms in the spring and leaves in the summer. I reach out to it often to say hello and connect with its spirit.
Even in the city, the stars in the sky sit with such a presence, I often feel this sense of a gathering.
What friends we have, all around us. All we have to do is pay attention and be open.