Irises, wet with rain

When I see the white irises open with their petals freshly anointed in raindrops, and the sun peaking into my grey world with it's warm touch, I can't help but think that my life is echoed and repeated everywhere. Didn't we just flare up in tempers and drama, like a thunderstorm? And haven't we all hugged and talked and made our peace with each other, and basked in the warmth of familial love once again?

I think of these analogies, and remember that there is also a literal and rational interconnectedness of all life forms. I think scientists are just now catching up to what poets know.

"I would say that there exist a thousand unbreakable links between each of us and everything else, and that our dignity and our chances are one. The farthest star and the mud at our feet are a family; and there is no decency or sense in honoring one thing, or a few things, and then closing the list. The pine tree, the leopard, the Platte River, and ourselves–we are at risk together, or we are on our way to a sustainable world together. We are each others' destiny."

-Mary Oliver, Winter Hours