Caleb's Crossing

by Geraldine Brooks

We are taught early here to see Nature as a foe to be subdued. But I came, by stages, to worship it. You could say that for me, this island and her bounties became the first of my false gods, the original sin that begot so much idolatry.

came to me then that God must desire us to use each of our senses, to take delight in the varied tastes and sights and textures of his world. Yet this seemed to go against so many of our preachments against the sumptuary and the carnal.

It was good, the voice whispered. It was right and well to know these powers, to live in a world aswirl with spirits, everywhere ablaze with divinity.

"Everywhere divinity" beliefs can be found in the folklore and rituals of many pre-Christian and Christian societies. Some would call these practices superstition, or even heresy, and dismiss them. I find this way of looking at the world brings mindfulness into our chaotic world, and disrupts feelings of isolation.