we see through filtering eyes

the world  of our making

milieus in which are shaped

the body of our thought

like photographs gradually appearing

we sift through absence awaiting light

to touch a richer night

than stars in a Nicaraguan sky

visions of fire-flies

hinting at our need

*...the healing of Christianity is not inherently future-oriented. Piero Camporesi has shown that the apothecary herbs and medicinal spices which arrived in Europe after the Crusades fit into a cosmology of salvation already articulated in folk beliefs and in the theology of Bonaventure's Tree of Life.  In this view, healing plants flowered in Eden before the fall, but the life-giving branches never ramified into history, for they were severed when humankind was banished from Paradise.  Through the cross, Christ regrafted humanity to the creative tree of life in Paradise.  The bodily fluids that flowed from him at the time of his salvific passion and death represent the reflowing of the vital resins and balms of Eden.  They gave rise to the medicinal plants, unguents and aromatics brought from the Holy Land to Europe.  Like incorruptible bodies of saints, which exuded the odor of sanctity, the apothecary was a sign of the healing powers of creation, now flowing through the branches of human history.

-Lawrence E. Sullivan