A Poem: Islands

I spy an island
far across a chasm of waves and sea.

I spy an island
not so different to me, perhaps,

except for the space that separates.

I spy an island
and must guess at its flora, its fauna.

Not holding binoculars,

only holding in my hands
the total sum of my experience—

if that even,

so dependent everything is
on our understanding of it.

I spy an island,
that if I close my eyes I may bring it closer,

connected underneath as we are
by bridges of rock and substrate

and sharing as we do
an ocean full of H2O and sea salts,

a myriad of organisms.

So that it does not matter really
if this other isle is made of pines,

and I am covered in brush and tea tree.
Not when

underneath we are joined somewhere
at the ligaments,

in the muscle and bone of the ground.

Yes, I spy an island
to which I will close my eyes and call,

that the birds will travel to and fro
from us each,

alighting upon leaves,

and the same sea move itself,
a giant body of weight between us

two islands,

not so small after all,
when you consider the whole.

Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
January 2022

“When we feel separate, when we feel disconnected, when we feel split from our self, from our family, from reality, from the Earth, from God, we will be angry and depressed people. Because we know we weren’t created for that separateness; we were created for union. So God sent into the world one who would personify that union—who would put human and divine together; who would put spirit and matter together. That’s what we spend our whole life trying to believe: that this ordinary earthly sojourn means something.”
~ Fr. Richard Rohr

“Faith is not simply seeing things at their visible, surface level, but recognizing their deepest meaning. To be a person of faith means you see things—people, animals, plants, the earth—as inherently connected to God, connected to you, and therefore, most worthy of love and dignity. That’s what Jesus is praying for: that you could see things in their unity, in their connectedness.”
– Fr. Richard Rohr

“When you look upon another human being and feel great love toward them, or when you contemplate beauty in nature and something within you responds deeply to it, close your eyes for a moment and feel the essence of that love or that beauty within you, inseparable from who you are, your true nature. The outer form is a temporary reflection of what you are within, in your essence. That is why love and beauty can never leave you, although all outer forms will.”
—Eckhart Tolle

“Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone – we find it with another.”
~ Thomas Merton