A Tale of Two Teachers

It is said that when the student is ready the teacher will appear.   This is a tale of two teachers arriving when I was ready to learn from each.

Many seasons ago on a warm, clear spring evening as I walked across the sacred prairie earth of my home I encountered a most wondrous thing.  As I walked through the tall grasses that populate the prairie my eye caught sight of something quite extraordinary; the sun was setting at my back casting long shadows as I walked through the grasses.  There among these tall brown and green grasses stood the most beautiful and unusual flower; it was a tropical flower, its colors reflecting the brightness of its native land.  At first I was not certain if the long sloping rays of the last sunlight were playing a trick on my eyes, or if this beautiful tropical flower was really there.

The prairie grasses swayed in the early evening light casting shadows as they moved, and this beautiful flower picked up the rhythm of their dance and moved with them as if they were dance partners of old.  The flower dipped and swayed in the most intricate of patterns as the evening breeze caressed it; I moved close to the flower and could smell its wonderful fragrance, a light perfume so different than the earthy smell of the grass and prairie flowers that danced with this tropical plant.  I leaned close to where it swayed in the breeze and gently touched it with my hand.  It responded to my touch as if it knew me, and like an old friend that has not been seen in a very long time, who has been very much missed and whose return has been anticipated.

I whispered to this tropical plant, “May I pick you?”  And the plant replied, “Most certainly; I will take root, grow, and flourish wherever I am planted.”

And so I bent down and gently took this plant from its place in the red/brown soil of the prairie earth.  As I gently drew the plant upward from its place it took root in my heart, filling me with its beauty and essence, and it resides in my heart to this very day.

Many seasons passed, the tropical plant living and flourishing in my heart as it accompanied me throughout my life’s journey.  One day my journey took me to a faraway land; a place of tall mountains, rugged terrain, and fast flowing rivers.  I arrived in the late afternoon of a summer’s day.  

As I passed through this rugged and beautiful landscape I saw a tall spindly plant growing up between two boulders at the place were the mountain met the river.  It stood rigidly at attention protected from the strong winds of the mountains by its two guardian boulders.  As I watched it I thought of the beautiful tropical flower.  I saw that this tall plant with its prickly covering could not sway and dance like the tropical flower had done on the prairie floor.  This plant stood straight and strong bending only slightly in the wind.

I was drawn to this plant because of its fierce rough beauty, its tenacity, and its strong will to survive.  Here on this mountainside next to the river it had found its home, and here it stood between the two boulders.  Its aroma was woody and strong, it was aromatic rather than fragrant like the tropical flower, but its scent was appealing.  

I walked to where it stood reached out my hand and gently touched its spiny covering.  It responded to my touch and greeted me like an old friend but with a bit more reservation than the tropical flower had greeted me.  It too knew me, I knew it, and I wanted to bring it to me as the tropical flower had come to me.  But this plant needed more coaxing, more time, and more awareness.  It would not come easily and had to be persuaded to join me.  It was a fierce wild plant that had rooted deep into this mountainside and was fed by the flowing river.  The tropical flower had come to my land of its own accord but now I traveled into the home of this wild plant and I wanted to carry it away with me.  It was not certain that it wanted to go. 

So we spoke through a wordless speech; we spoke of many things; of philosophies, life, of the physical world, and of the spiritual world.  Our dance was rigid, and more formal than the dance with the tropical flower had been.  But it was a proper dance, devised by the spirit of all growing things, and in time, as we spoke and danced and spoke again, the tall spindly plant became a bit softer and a little more pliable.

And I asked it, “May I pick you and carry you with me.”  And it replied, “Yes, I will go, take root, grow and flourish wherever I am planted.  For I am resilient and can easily do that.”

So I reached down and gently took this plant from the mountainside that had been its home and it immediately took root in my heart next to the beautiful tropical flower and both flourish there together.

Now I began to examine these two beings that are a part of my being.  Listening to them, observing them, and learning from them.  I compared them in my heart.  The tropical plant was a splash of beautiful color, a fragrance like very good perfume,  it was soft and pliable, and as I watched this plant I was reminded of an epiphany; the word so soft and gentle on the tongue and the meaning of it a flash/a spark of great knowing/understanding/awareness. 

The tall wild plant was subdued in color, rough in texture, and it carried an aroma of the mountain floor, the rocks, and the trees.  It reminded me of an iconoclast;   the word strong with a hard edge and always calling into question the belief systems of those it encounters. 

These two very dissimilar yet very much alike beings had rooted in my heart.  As I watched I saw that each of their root systems had gone deep into me and were intertwining as I watched.  They were one and they were different; they were together but not the same. 

The tropical plant flooded me with the simplicity of faith in myself, in what lie beyond me, and in life itself.  The tall wild plant introduced the hard edge of reality, calling me to examine, to explore, to learn, and then make my decision of what I would accept/believe.  They are dissimilar but the same; one complimenting the other; one drawing me more deeply into my awareness while the other calling me forth to examine and to think critically. 

I understood that this was the sacred twining that happens when one has come to the juncture of two great beings:

“For east is east

And west is west

And ner the twain shall meet

Till Earth and Sky

Stand presently

At God’s great judgment seat”*

These two great beings grow deep within my heart and have become my life teachers. Though there are great contrasts between them they are also similar.  Their root systems have entwined within me and symbolize an inner marriage of the inner feminine and the inner masculine.  Though they are outer beings in life their essence and nature have taken root in my heart and grow there as a part of what I am becoming as my path unfolds before me.

*Kipling, Rudyard: (1865 – 1936) ”The Ballad of East and West”