steaming landscape

I'm looking out at a steaming landscape. Before me there's an open area, a basin of land, covered with low scrubby plants. And dotted around, here and there, steam is wafting up out of the ground. It's rather magical.

I'm in the geothermal area of the North Island of New Zealand, at a location called Craters of the Moon, because in some places craters have been created by explosions of superheated steam. Today is more gentle, just the odd hissing sound, some vents rather like giant kettles boiling vigorously, others more like a simmering saucepan. But something which comes to me, as I look at this scene, is how unlikely it would seem. Of course, once we've seen something like this, we can analyse what's going on, understand the geothermal mechanisms, and so on. That's only after we've witnessed it.

Existence is so creative. We tend to think that we human beings are creative – and we are, the human mind is a creative thing – but it pales into insignificance compared with nature, with the mechanisms of the universe, which creates such wonder, such wondrous things as this steaming landscape. It's beautiful. And when we first see it, there is that moment of wonder, which includes a great appreciation for this creative force of nature. And then, of course, we start to analyse. And with that technical understanding, we tend to lose this sense of wonder. And it's a pity, because even once we've understood what's going on, still there's a great beauty, a great creative force at play here.

So I give thanks to these craters of the moon, this steaming landscape, for reminding me of the creative power of existence,