BECOMING

Everything in life is in a continuous state of becoming. Atoms and molecules are continually moving from one form of matter to another. Matter and energy themselves are interchangeable as the brilliant scientist, Albert Einstein showed. The universe is like a kaleidoscope which keeps changing its pattern continuously. The only reason the universe may appear to be “somewhat fixed” to us is because we tend to view things through a finite time measure relative to human existence. A mountain may appear to be fixed to us because it is unlikely to change substantially in our lifetime. Yet, in the perspective of infinite time and infinite space which is a feature of Ultimate Reality, that mountain is just as transient as the morning mist. Even as one is looking at the mountain, it is changing, perhaps imperceptibly so, but changing nevertheless. The sun, wind, rain, snow and other forces of Nature are continually changing that mountain, atom by atom or molecule by molecule. It may take millions, perhaps billions of years for that mountain to be changed into some totally different form but Nature has the time in which to carry out the change; in fact, she has infinite time.

Each one of us is in a continuous state of becoming with our environment which includes other people. I am becoming that tree outside my window just as that tree is becoming me. I breathe in the oxygen that was part of it before it gave it up through photosynthesis. That oxygen has now combined with my system to become part of me. I am the tree and the tree is me. I am becoming that insect, that bird, that animal and they are becoming me. I breathe in the air they gave up, air that was part of them just now, and that air is now a part of me just as the air I just gave up is now a part of them. I am becoming the earth and the earth is becoming me. Matter that leaves my body, waste and otherwise, returns to the earth to become the earth. Earth becomes me through that which enters my body as food and otherwise.