Let’s go on a Walk

“Let’s go on a walk”. Those were all the words needed to get his two young daughters to throw their boots and jackets on. With excitement never ceasing to exist with the unknown at twelve years old, the twins are thrilled to get outside of the house. 

“Let’s go dad!”, they plead. Not wanting to leave them in anticipatory pain, he too throws his boots on and opens the front door. With a ten minute walk down the street, a left and a right, they find themselves at the trailhead they had walked a hundred times before, and there’s nothing wrong with a hundred and one times.

With tall pines and oaks becoming the new norm as they begin their ascent, the girls run circles around their father. Skipping from rock to rock on the path, climbing the trees they see fit and pointing out the vibrate array of differences lining the forest floor; had they been wearing fur, one would have surely mistaken them for the very squirrels they unintentionally scared away.

Experiencing no better word than joy, the girls came to a sudden stop as they noticed something next to the trail that they had never noticed before. Carved into a tree was a plastic heart. With what used to be a plastic water bottle, was reshaped and painted red to represent a heart. Stuck to the tree, the heart stayed there unwavering in its glory.

After some contemplation, the first girl says, “we need to get that bottle down and throw it away. It doesn’t belong there.”

The other girl disagrees, “It’s art dummy. Don’t you see it? It looks like a heart. Someone did this on purpose and it’s beautiful.”

Flustered, the first girl sends her rebuttal, “But just look at it, it’s litter. It’s harming the Earth. It’s only right for us to help fix what we destroy.”

“But then the art would be ruined”, the second girl protests. “All the beauty would never be seen again”.

Now with a chuckle that could lull a crying baby to ease, the father steps in saying, “You are both right and you are both wrong. The plastic surely is a human-made product. One that will not serve this beautiful land much good. And it may even harm the little critters that roam this Earth as well. Who knows if one of them will try to eat it and choke.”

“So, let’s throw it away”, the first girl declares.

“Well don’t be so quick”, the father continues. “This heart surely is beautiful to the human eye. You never know how far beauty can stretch with helping and perfecting this world. Someone may need this heart soon. They may need some symbol, some self-manifested reason to be. And this could be that very thing that brings someone’s darkest hour into their most directional.”

“But it’s not supposed to be there Dad.” Unswayed, the first girl doesn’t like where she thinks her father is headed.

“It’s not?”, the father asks rhetorically. “Well, are we supposed to be? Look at your feet as they stump and distort the very ground beneath them. Notice the branches you have bent and broken as you enjoyed climbing those trees. And have you heard the silence without our voices? It would appear that the animals of this land are too afraid to play in their own home as you invited yourself over. So should we never disturb nature again then, since we too do not belong? And please never forget that the only reason there is something as an other when compared to nature is that humans have manifested that very other. So excluding the alternative options of land and beauty that humans have claimed as their own, where would you prefer we go?”

Confused, as any twelve-year-old would be, the daughter shrugged her shoulders.

“But don’t worry my darling, I’m not saying that we won’t throw it away,” the father explained.

“What? Why?”, now the second daughter was confused.

“Well as I said, the animals could choke on this plastic after we leave. It won’t decompose for hundreds of years, there is no telling what damage this plastic could do to the environment it is currently within.”

“But you said it yourself, dad. This could help someone’s day. Who knows, within hundreds of years there has got to be at least one person who it cheers up. Maybe it keeps them from ending their life. Or maybe it inspires them into becoming an environmentalist. It can do so much good by staying there.” The second daughter is pleased with her argument.

“This is all very true. As I said, you are both right, but also both wrong. There is no way of knowing the future and your beliefs are both logical and inspiring.” The father says so with subtle pride radiating from within. 

“So what should we do then?” the first girl asks.

“Maybe it’s not up to us,” the second girl suggests. “Maybe this is up to fate and we should leave it for something else to decide”. 

“Fate, such an interesting idea. Are we not a part of fate?” 

Creating a confused look on both the daughter’s faces, the father is encouraged to continue. 

“By taking no action, is itself an action. We, like everything around us, are a part of this universe. We are created by it, and then reflexively we create it as well. Therefore, our actions are a part of fate as much as the wind that may blow just hard enough in two days to knock this heart to the ground. Or as much as the squirrel that may decide to see what this lovely bright red treat has instore for it. Or even as much as the next person who stumbles upon this same situation and is faced with the very same two choices. You see, fate is not something that happens to us, rather something we are a part of. And so to leave this heart alone by the will of fate is the same as taking the heart down due to our biased preferences on what is best. In short, we are fate.”

Completely lost on what the right thing to do is, the daughters ask, “So does it not even matter then? Is any decision pointless?”

“Oh no, not at all”, said with a flash of concern for just a moment. “So many people stop at that point of thinking and damn themselves to their own hell. They will stop their train of thought there and make their reality indefinitely depressing and call it objective. If there is one thing I would wish above anything else is that you two never stop there and instead keep thinking because you’re truly only one step away from seeing it for how it is, not how you may want it to be.”

“So what is it then?” the first girl asks. 

“Yeah, what’s the point then. Please tell us,” the second girl says.

With a smile, the father explains his final point, “You are this universe. Both of you, and so I am, and everything else for that matter. Everything is a part of this reality and everything is doing as it does. This tree has grown to such size and strength because that is how it does. The artist put this heart here because that is his calling. And we are talking about this right now because that is how we perfectly are in this moment. Everything is how it is with no more a duty to its role than anything else. To stress over this is to forget the most important part, we are all equally factored into this reality. And so we are all equally driven and succeed to do as we intend. And you my loves can do as you will and if you see as I do one day you will see that you can will to be whatever you would like because you are this process. If you understand my words now, that is amazing. But it’s okay if you do not. I hope one day you do and then we will talk and it will surely be beautiful. So to answer your question of what’s the point in deciding and acting how we do, well the question is framed wrong. There is no other point needed to do and be as you do. You are how you are every moment with no dependent moment relying on the other. And so please be and enjoy the amazingness of it. Be amazed by your connectedness with everything, find your calling, and understand the perfectness of it all. There is no point in the way you frame the question, but the point is infinite once you take your lenses off and see the perfection that surrounds you.”

With a nervous smile, the girls stood there just as confused as they were before… actually more confused now. They couldn’t understand their father’s words, but they felt them. They felt his love and they knew one day they would look back at this day and it will make sense. And never would they be pressured by any force but love to understand that unknown world he speaks of being so close.

“So, what shall we do about that heart?” And a burst of uncontrollable laughter was sent through his buddy because the whole thing is just too perfect to not feel in full.