I visited the new California Academy of Sciences building at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco with my family over the Christmas holidays.  The new building includes the old Steihardt Aquarium and Planetarium, an exhibit on global warming, other exhibits, and a rain forest environment.  It was a Sunday before Christmas and the lines were long to get in even at the $25 admission fee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a rainy day.  The fields of plants on the rooftop were happy, as we climbed the spiral ramp leading to the top of the rainforest.    Everywhere there were birds and butterflies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I communed with the chameleons, they evinced a deep knowledge of the nature of existence.  These reptiles gave me a clue about life – that it is not to be statically enjoyed, that change is a fundamental characterisic of deep spirituality.  The Book of Changes also told us that.

 

The Breastplate of God’s Existence

Ribs, and beneath them a heart beating.

Since time immemorial all is changing.

Dynamism is deep within the infinite perspective.

Lizards know: channeling the infinite requires poise,

As it changes,

Balanced dynamically, shifting weight,

Changing direction, raising the arms,

Bending the knees, rotating the ankles,

Shoulders and hips.

Shifting the gaze,

Feeling the internal movement,

Action: genetic memory?

Strategic deployment?

Habit?

Reflex?

Or responding to the winds of change.

We turn, sink, thrust, parry,

Step back, rise, and conquer.