Swallowing Mysteries

As my first exploration into spirituality I'm re-visiting a book I read when I was much younger (though I can't remember when). A conversation with friend sparked memories of how profound an effect it had on me, though I couldn't quite recall why or what the effect was. It starts of beautifully with this passage:

The mystery leaves itself like a trail of bread crumbs, and by the time your mind has eaten its way to the maker of the tracks, the mystery is inside you, part of you forever.

Without pause he continues on:

The tracks of every mystery you have ever swallowed move inside your own tracks, shading them slightly or skewing them with nuances that show how much more you have become than what you were.

I find this to strike a chord in my soul that echoes loud and long. Every experience we consume skews us and shades with subtle texture. I'm resisting going on about these great lines for fear of sounding like that inevitable moral at the end of a self explanatory children's story.

Some other gems later (p24)

We learned whatever we made important.

This is so true in our own lives. We will learn what we make important. But what will we make important?

The mice were good medicine. They led beyond their mystery to the mystery of the way the lives of the animals were interdependent. They led us to an idea of how the whole fabric meshes together...
When you can see that pattern, you can see the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things instead of merely catching isolated flashes of its motion...

When we really pay attention, absorbing all that is around us, the many action-reactions we see the interconnectedness of it all. When we zero in and fixate on one aspect, one item, one point we miss the spirit-that-moves-through-all-things and just catch a flash of motion.

One more phrase that sounds good, but will take more to affirm or discredit for me:

Nature would never hurt us if we acted rightly toward her and did not panic.

Sound a bit like the God that will always protect us unless... Nature is full of life-cycles of its inhabitants. Even if those things "hurt" weren't acting rightly toward her, those "hurt" are necessary for the others to survive. Those not "hurt" are fully capable of hurting others, acting right or not. There certainly are opposing forces in Nature.