Once upon a time there was a forest where the birds sang by day and the insects by night. Trees flourished, flowers bloomed, and all manner of creatures roamed about in freedom.

And all who entered there were led to Solitude, which is the home of God, who dwells in Nature’s silence and Nature’s beauty.

But then the Age of Unconsciousness arrived, when it became possible for people to construct buildings a thousand feet high and to destroy rivers and forests and mountains in a month. So houses of worship were built from the wood of the forest trees and from the stone under the forest soil. Pinnacle, spire, and minaret pointed toward the sky; the air was filled with the sound of bells, with prayer and chant and exhortation.

And God was suddenly without a home.(From “Taking Flight” by Anthony de Mello, 35-6)