A quick glance at yonder tree reveals

A trunk, boughs, branches, leaves, some roots, and maybe fruit.

But looking deeply, as the Buddhists say,

Discloses more than leaf and bark,

Discloses sunlight, water, air, earth, time, space,

The planter, his forebears and his offspring,

Countless animals and minibeasts that at one time or another,

Have crept upon its bark or perched on its branches,

And the wind, the rain, and rivers too,

And the distant flutter of a butterfly, continents away,

Giving the leafs but the slightest shake,

In short, the whole universe conspiring to make the tree

No more, no less than what it is.

Are we not like the tree ourselves?

A bit of earth, a bit of cloud, a bit of air,

A bit of space, a bit of time,

A bit of love, a bit of everything?