Wind in palm leaves carries me back to childhood days in Sri Lanka. The emotional memory is one of peace and yet there were violent pogroms erupting all around. My parents’ work was intensely involved in the social upheaval, and it carried through to all of us, and yet my memory is one of peace. Perhaps overwhelm requires one to find solace where one can, and as a child, nature. Nature has its own knowing, even when it rips and tears, there is a wisdom in it beyond what we may understand. We humans, ideally each find our survival escapes when the world seems too much.
As decades roll along, and one’s peaks and valleys have had their way with us, there is a moment, a crossing of an invisible river, where suddenly one realizes that there is nothing left to feel. At first embodying the strangeness of this and then relaxing into the softness, the sweetness, the quiet calm, and recognizing,
‘Oh! This is peace. Thank you’.