Madison Kolla
a tribute

For Peggy, who’s constantly teaching us that the next great adventure is always within our reach,
if you only have the vision, the imagination, the courage to create that which you seek.
It’s been a lesson in presence to witness these days - up and down, good and bad - this ebb and flow that is life.
Thank you for helping us learn the big things, the big things that hurt.
For allowing us to be heartbroken and devastated by the way that life simply is.
A mushroom named Reishi gave me a story the other day, and I wanted to share it with you.
He told me of a vast network
hidden from plain view
webs of connectivity
Alive, Aware
existing everywhere
nothing that they don’t touch
expansive sea of mycelium
far-reaching
but always buried
Invisible beneath the soil
so when the time is right
after the rains begin to fall
Up from this hidden oneness web
mushroom appears
alone
this fruiting body does serve a biologic need
to reproduce, to spread her spores
supposedly to breed
but while she’s here on Earth with us
she just IS so much more.
she shares her beauty
feeds and shelters tiny life
She impacts us to our core.
after gracing us with her presence
on this temporary stage
she's through sharing her gifts
her glow begins to fade
and within a too-short time
Mushroom’s completely gone away
She decomposes, disappears
into the endless Earth
where she rejoins mycelium
again everywhere at once