Biology

“It is a magnificent feeling to recognize the unity of complex phenomena which appear to be things quite apart from the direct visible truth.” – Albert Einstein


The wall calendar of my high school sophomore Biology class had that above quote from Einstein printed on it.


I had no idea what the heck it was supposed to mean.


At the end of the school year I asked my teacher, Mrs. Higney, if I could have the calendar. Ever the gracious teacher, she agreed to it.


From 1999 to 2009 that calendar hung on my bedroom wall opened to that quote. I kept it open there so that it would be constantly there, ever present in my daily life to incorporate it into my reality.


It was taken down from my wall in 2009 for I no longer had walls. That November I left on a bicycle ride in fulfillment of my mission.


I quit my job, got rid of all of my possessions, sold my car, left my apartment and got on a bicycle and headed to California from Massachusetts.


The ride lasted five days before I turned around and came back to nothing but Love and a Clean Slate.


Despite the fact that I didn’t make it to California didn’t concern me, for that was not the real destination.


And in many ways, even though it has been over a year since the return, I know that I am still on that bicycle ride. I just don’t happen to be on the bicycle right now.


So what, then, is the real destination?


Perhaps it was the Clean Slate. Perhaps it was to Discover Love. Perhaps it was to take a break from Life. Or perhaps to take a break from what others call the World. And perhaps it was a means to an end.


The ride didn’t really start in November 2009. Perhaps it started that spring when a tree spoke to me and told me that I was on a Journey of Discovery. Or perhaps it was the summer before when my fiancé passed away. Or perhaps it was when we met in high school nine years earlier. Or perhaps it all started my sophomore year of high school, sitting in Biology class, looking at the walls. And wondering what it means “to recognize the unity of complex phenomena which appear to be things quite apart from the direct visible truth.”


In the time since I left everything behind to go on that Faithful ride I became broke.


I became homeless.


I slept on my friend’s floor for six months.


I let go of all that was holding me back.


I became a Mormon


I read “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse


I became a school teacher.


I met a wonderful woman and fell in Love instantly and asked her to marry me.


She said yes.


All of these things I could not see going into that bicycle ride yet all of these things prepared me for what was to come next. And what is coming next is preparing me for what I still cannot see. Yet what I can see is the unity of the complex mystery of Faith that is the Universal Plan.


And I am enjoying every moment of this Journey of Discovery.


The Study of Life is a worthy endeavor for all Beings.