至关重要的东西.docVIP

至关重要的东西 　　The most important thing I ever did? Surely, surely. But not born from a culture of dollars for sense, or desires seen and unseen. Instead, I sought to call forth something of person, of place―of power! 　　And so I returned to meditate. Back thrust against bark, gnarled by ages while towering to heights. In Latin, Pinus Torreyana, rarest of all ancient ones in this country I deemed home. 　　“Lord,” I prayed as for an epithet. “Fill me here.” 　　Afterward, I listened. Yet I heard only the silence of bark stretching, reaching, expanding like the body of a baby in growth. 　　And so I went. I sought volumes, pressed into parchment from the very core of which I so recently retreated. The pages spread before me, a veritable dictionary of meaning, an encyclopedia of knowledge. “Here,” thought I, “my answer lies, for surely knowledge is power!” 　　Yet over lists and lists I pored, and though always named and defined, they conveyed merely words to me. 　　And so I returned to meditate. 　　My familiar waited, providing shade with branches bent from heavenward to touch the earth of their birth. 　　“Lord, this is too big,” my lips begged to identify. “I cannot accomplish it alone.” 　　Afterward, I listened. Yet only the silence of wind within branches answered, flailing them to and fro, to collide and part, like the arms of a newborn in rest. 　　And so I went. I turned to friends for counsel. They advised soulfully the truth of their person. 　　“This!” one offered. 　　I nodded to such wisdom. 　　“That!” another contradicted. 　　I nodded further. 　　Thus my visitations continued. Back and forth. Friend to friend. And forever, “this” opposing “that.” 　　Finally, my head shook its foolishness. 　　And so I returned to meditate. 　　Again, I sought the selfsame spot, touched the resin of one pine rooted amidst hundreds. 　　“Lord,” I asked for the clarity of a rubric. “Show me the way.” 　　Afterward, I listened. But only silence replied, in the mists from the nearby sea, shu