Essence of Life

ESSENCE OF LIFE

I look into the sky

And what do I spy

But a cloud

As it passes by

The essence

Of that cloud

Is water through and through

The same can be found

Within me and you

Before me

A mountain I do see

Solid, immovable

To a great degree

Minerals

You will find within

The same can be found

Beneath our skin

I look

Within your heart

And realize how little

We are apart

Whole worlds expand

As I look inside

And see the same spirit

Within us reside

That which binds

Us together

Is a force

That binds

Altogether

Tis the power of love

A gift from above

And divine in itself

Thereof

-Shiidon, September 2010

Love is a common subject of poets. I was reflecting upon how much of us is in other forms of nature. I then reflected on how each of us in so many ways are the same. Then I remembered a quote describing the binding force of nature being love. While the following is not exactly that quote, it is along the same lines. It is partially my inspiration.

We will now consider the subject of "Love" which has been suggested, submitting it to the four standards of judgment and thereby reaching our conclusions.

We declare that love is the cause of the existence of all phenomena and that the absence of love is the cause of disintegration or nonexistence. Love is the conscious bestowal of God, the bond of affiliation in all phenomena. We will first consider the proof of this through sense-perception. As we look upon the universe we observe that all composite beings or existing phenomena are made up primarily of single elements bound together by a power of attraction. Through this power of attraction, cohesion has become manifest between atoms of these composing elements. The resultant being is a phenomenon of the lower contingent type. The power of cohesion expressed in the mineral kingdom is in reality love or affinity manifested in a low degree according to the exigencies of the mineral world. We take a step higher into the vegetable kingdom where we find an increased power of attraction has become manifest among the composing elements which form phenomena. Through this degree of attraction a cellular admixture is produced among these elements which make up the body of a plant. Therefore in the degree of the vegetable kingdom there is love. We enter the animal kingdom and find the attractive power binding together single elements as in the mineral, plus the cellular admixture as in the vegetable, plus the phenomena of feelings or susceptibilities. We observe that the animals are susceptible to certain affiliation and fellowship, and that they exercise natural selection. This elemental attraction, this admixture and selective affinity is love manifest in the degree of the animal kingdom.

Finally we come to the kingdom of man. As this is the superior kingdom, the light of love is more resplendent. In man we find the power of attraction among the elements which compose his material body, plus the attraction which produces cellular admixture or power augmentative, plus the attraction which characterizes the sensibilities of the animal kingdom, but still beyond and above all these lower powers we discover in the being of man the attraction of heart, the susceptibilities and affinities which bind men together, enabling them to live and associate in friendship and solidarity. It is therefore evident that in the world of humanity the greatest king and sovereign is love. If love were extinguished, the power of attraction dispelled, 89 the affinity of human hearts destroyed, the phenomena of human life would disappear.

(Abdu'l-Bahá, Foundations of World Unity, p. 88)

For the entire talk: http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/c/FWU/fwu-25.html