Each Cell of a Tree is Just Like Me! – The Writings of Tom Grasso

Observance is a gift that should not be overlooked. I love to just sit quietly and observe everything around me without interfering. It’s refreshing to see the universe spin around me, how it all works just exactly as it should. I can inhale and get air, I can exhale and give a gift. All without doing anything at all.

I was stuck, as has been the case a lot lately, sitting at an airport gate just waiting. Sometimes I find work to do, but this time I just wanted to sit and watch. Some people where hurriedly rushing about, others were taking their time, some had family and friends and others, like me, were alone. Some were sleeping, some were being frustrated for one reason or another, others were reading or watching TV. And some were just doing what I was doing – observing it all.

I realized something in a memory I had. I wondered if I viewed this activity from above if it would look like the video of the bloodstream I saw once. A rush of activity with each pulse of the heart followed by stillness. In that stillness there was still activity, and in the rush of activity there was stillness. It all seemed chaotic yet it all had beautiful purpose; an organization of creation inspired by what was necessary. When I viewed this video, as I viewed the activity around, me I realized that each component of this activity was individual in nature yet serving a much higher purpose. Each cell was itself, yet fulfilling a purpose it was created to fulfill. I have no idea whether or not that cell realized what it was doing, but I realized that it had very little choice no matter how much choice it thought it had. I must fulfill its purpose, for its purpose was being fulfilled with each passing moment.

With this, my mind shifted toward a tree. I love trees…they embody what I see as a “microcosm of existence”. Each tree has a component that is individual in nature yet cannot survive without the others. A branch is a branch. A leaf is a leaf. A trunk is a trunk. Roots are roots. They are individual components of the universal thing we call a “tree”, each integral to the other, each necessary for the other to fulfill its purpose. In this way, the purpose of the leaf is to give the roots an opportunity to live their purpose. It is no different when we view anything we can see in this existence; our ecosystem is built on this premise as is our entire universe. Everything serves everything else. Nothing serves everything and everything serves nothing. Light and darkness serve each other. Both are individual, yet cannot be without the other. It is a consistent theme in our universe.

Our greatest gift to the universe is just to be. The cell of a tree’s trunk doesn’t spend its time worrying about whether or not the cells of its root are working. They are too busy doing what they need to do. Our red blood cells don’t worry about what the white cells are doing, they are busy fulfilling their purpose. It isn’t selfishness to do what you intend to do because when you fulfill this purpose you provide a gift to others so that they may do the same. In this way, I am not an individual, but a part of a whole. I create so that you may create. You are so that I may be. Without each other we simply do not exist.

We are no different from the cells of a tree, or the cells of our own body. We are as temporary as every cell in our bodies (most of which renew every year). We were before we are and will be after were gone, as this existence is but a transition. A mighty oak was once a tiny seed, it just kept on fulfilling its purpose without question and will continue to do so even after it has fallen. We are no different, we are not separate, we are ONE.

So, as I write this on a plane I see all of the people around me. We are individuals, but one on a plane. I will look at the ground as we land and see the rush of activity coupled with beautiful stillness. I will see an entire universe below me, all necessary for it all to be. This story never ends, this story never dies, and this story never gets old. After all, it is our purpose.