FROM THE NOTEBOOK MUIR WOODS
The tree that
kept growing
A walk among the redwoods and the quiet work of continuing.
BY VAIŚEṢIKA DĀSA
A reflection · Lightly edited
C. L. Taylor, 1907
I was in Muir Woods yesterday. I saw a tree, and then we were talking about why that tree is bigger than other trees. It’s because it just kept growing and didn’t stop. Everybody else had the same chance.
Albert Bierstadt, c. 1872–73. LACMA.A different grove, another way of seeing a great tree.
And then we thought about people that we know. They were just in the back room doing such and such, and they just kept doing it, and now they’re kind of famous. But they’re the same people. They just kept doing what they’re doing.
“It’s because it just kept growing
and didn’t stop.”
The water of hearing
śravaṇa-kīrtana-jale
karaye secana
The seed of devotion is watered
by hearing and chanting.