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does not envy a rose. A red rose does not want to be a pink rose. A sparrow does not aspire to be an eagle. A birch does not wish it were a redwood. All of the denizens of earth, including the rocks and minerals, the dirt beneath our feet, are in touch with their divinity. They seek only to fulfill their own being, to be the best rock, dirt, tree, worm they can be.

I often compare human beings to something like a flower. A flower begins as a seed in the ground. You have all seen time-lapse photography of plants and flowers. The flower breaks out of the seed and bursts through the ground. The green stem shoots into the air like a rocket. A bud is formed and then the flower explodes out of the bud and shows the world its glory.

A human being, on the other hand, cautiously creeps out of its seed, looking around to see if it is safe to expose itself to the air and sunshine. Some people, in a sense, never leave the seed or egg stage. We grow up carefully, looking for danger at every turn. When we finally come to the bud stage, we do not open up aggressively, thrusting our face at the sun. We peek out to see if it's safe. We discuss the wisdom of flowering. We read books and take classes. We study religions. If we ever flower at all, it is one petal at a time.

We are most afraid of our beauty, our power, and our divinity. We spend a good deal of our time and energy hiding who we really are, even from ourselves. Although we have been given life and given life in abundance, we hide it. We diminish it. We shove what is best in us into some dusty old corner of our unconscious.

I led a group visualization one time in which we tried to experience what it was like to be a cell in our body. We experienced our consciousness shrinking down and entering into our body. We chose whatever cell we wanted to enter. We would continue shrinking until we were small enough to actually enter a cell.

I saw a bunch of cells connected to one another, looking like a bee honeycomb. They were kind of golden and seemed to be lighted from within. They were all singing! And then I saw one of the cells swell up and divide, creating a new cell. All of the cells cheered. Then I saw another cell wink out, obviously dying. All of the other cells cheered again. For them, birth and death were one.

Then I made myself small enough to enter one of the cells. I imagined myself pushing through the cell membrane and going inside, trying to experience what the cell experienced. What I experienced, in this simple exercise, was the greatest love I have ever felt. In this single cell, there was more love than in all of my life.

So life is about remembering who we are and finding that sense of love and joy that every cell in our body already knows.

Learn more about this author, Bob Trowbridge.
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