Heroes Not Zombies

Leaf skeletons are beautiful and fascinating. You really don’t know they are there until the green substance of the living leaf has gone. It reminds me of the cyclical nature of the seasons and of the phases of our lives. From buds bursting with potential to full flourishing and on to dissolve back into the world from which the leaves emerged.

But there’s something else….this feels like a revelation….a glimpse at the underlying structure of the universe. Not a permanent, fixed structure of course, but a transient one based on a fundamental tendency to create nodes and links – the network or web-like nature of our universe which connects everything to everything else.

The Chinese concept of “li” captures this idea – it’s the multiplicity of patterns we see in all living forms which manifests itself in the beautiful patterns which we see.

However you think of it, I think this wonderful leaf skeleton opens a door to understanding that the universe is not totally random, and matter is not distributed smoothly and evenly everywhere. But that reality structures itself and the hidden structures create, or at least profoundly influence, the myriad of individual forms which we see around us, and within us.