Nectar's Bitterness

John Burroughs described the simple wisdom of nature. The fruit of trees so lush, sweet, and juicy beckons us to eat, indeed, the delight may even be said to taunt us.  Yet in the center of such heavenly nectar awaits a seed or pit that is as bitter as the fruit is sweet.  What do we do with the nectarless hard pit? We toss it aside and throw it away and nature laughs.  In so doing, we have become a co-creator, joining the circle of life. For in throwing away the seed or pit we have cast forth nature's new life, awaiting to be transformed and born in places she, as a single tree and branch, could not have reached.

Would I, with the same wisdom, drink deeply the nectar of life and giggle and savor when the sweet juices trickle from the corner of my mouth and down my chin.  And when my teeth and lips, as they surely will at times, rest against the bitter pits and hardness of pain, loss and lostness, abandonment and confusion, may my heart smile as she releases the pit back to the sweet Hands of Life to be transformed into another sweet juicy tree of Life.  And as the pit, a seed, is willingly released and planted, to let my tongue dance upon my lips, gathering the drops of nectar still clinging.

Thanks to the human heart by which we live,

Thanks to its tenderness, its joys and fears,

To me the meanest flower that blows can give

Thoughts that do often lie to deep for tears.

~Wordsworth