Whenever you sit in a chair…you can ponder how, in order for the chair to exist, a long, long list of things had to happen. Initially, there had to be sunlight, dirt, the seed of a tree, insects, microbes, water, and many other elements that contributed to the tree’s development. Then there had to be people and machines to make lumber from the tree, someone else to design the chair, and yet other people to actually make it. Next came the trucks that carried the chair from its origins to the place where you acquired it. Then there were all the people involved in the marketing of it, and any other elements involved in the journey the chair took from seed to completion. If any of these elements had been missing, the chair wouldn’t exist.

What is true for the chair is true for everything: remove any one of the complex array of elements in the material creation of anything, and it no longer exists. Just as the chair can’t become a chair
without all the other participants along the way, you can’t be you without an amazing, complex interconnection with all the contributors that make your life possible.

~ Nancy Napier, “Sacred Practices for Conscious Living, 2nd Edition”

Iguazu – photo from bigstockphoto.com