Last night I was outside, under the moon, waiting for the dog to do his nightly business before turning in.
We have really big weeds growing out back right now. I love watching the weed ecosystem grow.
I was near a three foot tall weed, and he looked so dignified, so I leaned over to him and said, “Hi.”
I then asked him what his name was. In my mind, I heard his response quite clearly: “What makes you think I speak English?”
This occurred to me as a bit paradoxical because clearly he spoke English by virtue of his response in English my mind.*
I wanted to honor him by honoring his question, so I said, "Well I'd love to hear your name in your language."
I waited a moment to see what would happen, and then I heard some weird squeaks and synthesizer sounds in my mind, somewhat like R2D2, but a bit more esoteric and embellished.
I felt like I connected with him by virtue of honoring hearing his name in his language. And it touched me.
Dan Millman came to the realization that "there are no ordinary moments," save for our minds judging any moment as "ordinary." Last night, I came to realize there are no ordinary "things," including "weeds."
All are special, in that they are worthy of love, honor, respect, being seen and appreciated and listened to. Weeds, flies, toasters, soap scum on the shower stall wall - everything.
Why? Because they are all perceived in my mind. They all exist for me in my mind. The thought, "Oh, that's just a weed - it doesn't deserve respect," is a thought in my mind. And why would I choose to hold an unloving judgment or disrespectful belief or dishonoring appraisal in my mind when it only hurts myself and us all, and blocks me from The Light, from my awareness that I am The Light, from the joy of knowing and experiencing the Truth of what I am?
It's funny. I've heard it said that clearing our mind of judgments is like weeding our garden. But paradoxically, removing weeds from our mind is tantamount to removing our beliefs that anything should be judged as a weed - regarded as a problem to handle.
Which reminds me of that question:
What is the difference between a weed and a plant?
A judgment.
* I later realized that the plant perhaps responded in universal light / energetic / intent language, and I subconsciously translated that into English so as to hear it intelligibly in my mind. And when I asked to hear his name in his language, that intent was enough to get my mind to not do the automatic translation, so that I could more directly hear an auditory translation of his name.