All my life, I’ve lived above the ground,/ car wheels over paved roads, roots breaking through/concrete,/ and still I’ve not understood the reel of this life’s purpose.

From Ada Limon’s “Notes on the Below“

I grew up above ground and in love with the underground. Like a geologist or archeologist, I have always loved the underground. The below. Below desire. Below story. Below identity. Below truth. At 8, I wanted to be a geologist. At 10, I wanted to be a writer. At 16, I wanted to be a teacher. At 30, I wanted to be a researcher. At 40, I wanted to be a storyteller. At 50, I wanted to be a seeker. Today, I see the connection between it all.

I have always been in love with excavation. With uncovering. With creating. With the natural world. With the nature of things. I have always lived with the tension between my desire to consume and conserve. I have always lived with the tension between my desire to go deep and my desire to fly. I have always lived with the tension between my desire to pay attention and my desire to escape. I have always lived the tension between the beauty and terror of it all. 

I know a few things for sure about the below. The below is big enough for it all. Big enough for our desires, stories, identities, multitudes, and truths. Big enough for joy and sorrow, questions and answers, faith and fear, light and dark. The below happens in perfect time. Like seasons, tides, and days. Like life’s falling apart and coming back together. The below is where meaning and connection and love are found.