Understories

(image by Suzanne Simard)

 The word “understory” has been repeating itself in my contemplation lately. Perhaps this has been stimulated by the podcast from OnBeing with Suzanne Simard who has researched and written about the life of trees, a community of reciprocity and wisdom, under the surface of visible expectations, underground.

Besides being fascinated by the whisperings of trees, their protection of the young, the identification of “mothers” among them, and the sheer wisdom being revealed, I found myself reflecting on our “understories”. What invisible and under-appreciated forces support, transform and propel us through life?

Christian Wiman talks a great deal about these invisible internal forces and how fracking for them leads to God…perhaps…for some. What makes sense to me and what resonates as the divine force of the forest is that following the doubt deep down into the ground of our being, “skepticism seems to have salted the ground of our soul, faith, durable faith, is steadily taking root.” (My Bright Abyss, p. 76) 

Sometimes we overlook the invisible. Sometimes we deny something so powerful because we cannot control or even understand. Yet, it seems to me that the mystery of the “understory” is the regenerative power itself. I am trying to stay with that.