This essay is from Diana Reed, a yoga instructor in Hernando county. It was printed in the St. Petersburg Times this morning (8-28-10), and it struck a chord with me. See what you think:
"Have you had an apple lately? Do you notice that the minute you bite into that red or green crunchy fruit, the flesh begins to change?
What was once pure, untouched and untainted begins to stain and brown, reacting to the air around it. The tender seeds within the apple are now exposed, assaulted by the atmosphere.
The apple has been invaded.
And yet, when its seeds are left on the ground, when they are tossed to the side, they find new ground. They take new root, sinking deep into the soil then pushing toward the light, sipping sweet water. To grow again.
We are apples. Many times throughout our lives our coverings are ruptured. We bruise and brown, taint and sour.
Where we once thought we were free of emotional turmoil or strife, we find a new bite into our psyches, a new rupture to our hearts or a new stain on our souls. Like the apples' flesh, we react to the world around us.
We notice the change in the air, the raised voice, the unfriendly gesture, the lie revealed.
We discolor again and again. We may look for untouched pars of ourselves but there is always something around the corner that we didn't expect. Something we didn't see coming, an eating away, an eroding.
But what if we were more like the seeds? What if when we are tossed aside, we find new soil? What if we rooted in, drew down, then up...and grew?
Learning to see our core reveals the depth of what makes us who we are and teaches us that no matter how many times the flesh is ripped, the see remains unchanged.
The see within knows what it needs to carry on. It searches for fertile soil, or even digs into rocky ground. It drives its new fragile roots into the earth and points its young sapling toward the heavens. It drinks the clean water life provides, wraps itself in viable sunlight and rises...rises...rises.
Have you had an apple lately?"
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