I like to believe we can all make that important connection – to nature, to each other, to the value and beauty of all life – the connection that lifts us beyond competition and savagery. Making the connection is the path to peace, individually and collectively. Sooner or later we’ll see it, by any variety of means – hopefully, before our mortal end.
The connection is there for all of us – in any language, on our own or with help, no matter what color our holy book or science journal. Some find the connection through meditation or prayer; some while contemplating a spectacular starlit sky or holding a child; some only after experiencing a dramatic injury or other traumatic event. The connection exists whether you intentionally seek it or not. Sometimes the connection serendipitously finds you. The connection exists no matter how you define God, and even if you consider God a fiction. If we spend our lives squabbling over the semantics and details, we can miss the value of the connection altogether.
In this beautiful TED talk, neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor talks about her discoveries as the result of her 1996 stroke:
More information about Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor and her book, Stroke of Insight, is available at DrJillTaylor.com
Special thanks to Larry Glover at Wild Resiliency who reminded me of this TED talk in a beautiful, candid memorial post he wrote after the death of his father: A Father’s Lessons on Living and Dying.
