Stone faced mountains and sand dunes. A stream running between them both and the desert’s flat mesa. Above them all, clouds filled with wind, rain, and snow. I tried to take in all the subtleties, variations and contrast, but confess I stood there speechless. How many layers of textures were there? And to think this one small image multiplied in such diversity of strength, softness, raw power, beauty and starkness, over and over and over again upon this earth. Oh may my heart always see richness in diversity and never diminished being. To see and honor the thread that unites all life. To not separate myself from the earth or from others. And perhaps, the greater thread, to know the diversity within myself and accept it with the same honor and awe.