The West Window View

The view out the west windows of the house captures the line of trees along the runoff branch.  A runoff branch is the rural equivalent of an urban retention pond.  Normally, it is like a dry stream bed, but after a good rain, it becomes a rushing stream.  The conservation people call the area through which runs the runoff branch wetland.  As wetland it gets special protection from timber cutting and controlled burning.  When I look out those windows facing west, I see the line of tall trees that have taken root and grow in that wet dirt, but I also see a point of connection to the rest of the world.    

When the rain falls in sufficient amounts to nurture the land, the excess rain water runs downhill to turn my dry stream bed into something that sounds and looks like a mountain stream.  The filled stream, or branch as it is called around here, flows into a larger creek, and then into a river which flows steadily south toward the ocean.  At some point the rain which falls on this land becomes part of a great body of water I cannot see.  And finally through a process that enables moisture to rise from the ocean to form weather that creates rain clouds, the water which fell on the ground comes here again to repeat creation's cycle of connectivity.   

It is a constant reminder from the Creator God that everything is connected and dependent on every other part of the created order.  We do not live alone.  It is impossible.  We cannot live in some isolated bubble where we are untouched and unaffected by the Creation around us.  The creation does sustain our life, but its purpose is not found in the way we exploit it through demanding that it serve us, but as it serves the purpose for which it was put in place by its Creator Who is our Creator.  Maybe St. Francis did live closer to divine truth than we realize as he spoke of the creation as brother and sister instead of servant.