In the infinite Indra's Net, a glittering gem lies at each node reflecting every other gem, a constant and complete interconnected interpenetration of reality. Each one present within all.

This is the relationship between here and there, you and me, imagination and existence.

Friday, at dusk, a very small bird flew into our east-facing window. I believe the windows of a neighboring house, at this time of year, reflect the setting sun into our normally harmless window. I ran outside and saw this tiny being on its side, beak opening and shutting, legs twitching, eyes closed. I put my hand against its back and imagined healing energy. After a few minutes, I picked it up, felt its heartbeat, and eventually rolled it upright. Its feet grabbed hold of my index finger. It began blinking its eyes. A few minutes later, it flew out of my hand.

Sunday evening, my husband and I resumed our reading of Sun House by David James Duncan. On the first page of the chapter, page 303, the protagonist has run outside after a “faint knock on the window… The bird lay in the flower bed below, immobile, its tiny blood-orange head bowed, eyes closed, beak opening and closing.”

As my husband is reading, I cry, “what's happening?” Two more times, “what’s happening?!” as he tries to continue reading.

If, like Indra's Net, life is one interconnected or intra-connected whole, any moment, any event, any unbidden knowing can be communicating this interconnectedness to us. And any dream, any thought or imaginary story or picture in our unseen world can also bring glimpses of our seamlessness.

Twenty-seven years ago I awakened from a dream, tearful and filled with awe. I knew immediately that to remember this large and detailed dream would take the rest of my lifetime, so I let that go. I see many, many generations of people who are experiencing all of the horrors and joys of existence. I know that Love is playing all the parts and that I am that Love. While the details of the individual stories rapidly fell away, I purposefully remembered a man with a gun and a man with a broken leg because I needed to know that even the violence and pain we experience is part of this Love.

This dream is the truest thing that I know, but I struggle to trust it in my life. Jeff Carreira suggested to me that, instead of feeling the gap between the truth of the dream and my earthbound existence, I should claim the reality of what the dream showed me: what is and has always been so. Isn't that a better place to land? Standing in the Love that is the foundation of it all.

Whether our identity is caught in a dance of doubt or trust, whether the bird flies away into the sky or into the unseen, whether the gem in the net reflects suffering, heartache, cruelty and loss or laughter, joy, freedom and play – Love is the ground that holds it all. It's the pattern the tapestry weaves, the Love which knows itself.