There is No Substitute for Experience

However much we describe and explain love, when we fall in love we are ashamed of our words. ~ Rumi

This morning I caught the sunrise from under a blanket of snowy clouds. There was a light flurry of snow at the same time as the sun was peeking its golden head out above the horizon, just before it crawled up into the security of the grey clouds above. I watched it's fierce, brazen journey for a minute in the reflection of a window facing the wrong direction before I realized what I was looking at. Then I opened the door and watched. It was so beautiful, it took my breath away.

I took a picture of it, though it didn't do it justice. Granted I'm no Ansel Adams, but still, you'd think that something so beautiful would have no way to disguise itself, even in an amateur's lens. (The picture above is not the one I took, sadly).  But I think, in fact I know, that even the most talented of photographers couldn't have captured that amazing flow of liquid gold, no matter what they claimed, because the beauty of nature is not to be imitated by human hands.

No hue of black can approximate the arresting vulnerability and complex beauty in the eyes of a doe. Not even the finest perfume can conjure the aroma of a fresh lily. It's just not possible, because all we have to go on is the fallibility of our human senses, and the interpretation of such by our extremely flawed human brain. Tainted by memory and emotion, we think we are re-creating some natural phenomenon, but because we are skewed ourselves in perspective, and there is no such thing as objectivity, we don't see that what we put out is a mere shadow of the real thing. We laud ourselves as geniuses that "know " the natural world, but we are charlatans, working with second hand information at best. Silly humans, when will we learn that there is no substitue for experience of the phenomena around us?  

So I challenge you to go see, hear, smell and touch (and maybe taste - depending where you are ;) ) the natural world around you today. Have an outdoor meditaion. Snap a picture of a gorgeous snow covered branch. Feel the tug of your over-ambitious dog on the leash as you walk with him up a hill. Sense the briskness in the fall air deep inside the nostrils and sinuses. Don's let another day go by that someone gives you their muddied, second-hand description - go experience it for yourself. Why else do we have a body?

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