A little girl was drawing intently; scratch scratch scratch went her pencil.
Then her brother walked into the room. "Hey," he said, "what are you drawing? Show me!"
She hunched down over the paper. "No! It's not ready yet!"
"Well, at least tell me what it is!"
"I'm drawing a picture of God," she said.
"You're drawing... God?" Her brother burst out laughing. "That's just silly!" he said. "Nobody knows what God looks like!"
The girl gazed up and smiled at her brother. "Well," she said confidently, "they will once I finish my drawing!"
Scratch scratch scratch went her pencil.
~ ~ ~
This is not a Zen parable per se, but when I read it in Robin Gill's book of New Year haiku (The Fifth Season), I couldn't stop thinking about it. So much of religion, so much of seeking, so much of meditation is about something ineffable, but at the same time there is so much writing about it, teaching about it, singing about it, painting about it, and on and on. We can't help but be like that little girl in what we do, even if we are also her little brother at the same time.
I was curious how this story circulates online, and I see that it has been greatly popularized by Sir Ken Robinson!
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