Discovery

Ocotillo

"Ultimately, spirituality is a mode of being in which not only the divine and the human commune with each other but through which we discover ourselves in the universe and the universe discovers itself in us." 

~ Thomas Berry, The Sacred Universe

Rainy morning, green grass beginning to reveal itself once more as the soil moistens, warms, and wakes up like I do when splashing water upon my face. The past few nights, when I go out with the dogs before bed, the night-hoises are so loud and enchanting. The silence of slumber in winter is being replaced by insects and peepers and the rustles of beings in brush free from their snow-forts of hibernation. I see--really see--the beauty and wonder of the woods, the glorious guardian pines I treasure towering over all other plants and over me and my family. We have lived for ten ears within their embrace and I have felt so safe and nourished, now fully recovered from past traumas and challenges; they have kept me swaddled in a loving blanket of multi-colored rough-bark threads, each one feeding and weaving my heart whole. I breathe in their scent and hold it within briefly, acknowledging their gift. A bit of sadness creeps upon me with the knowing of our this-year-sometime departure, yet not separation for I am ever with them and they with me in Spirit and imagination. I can close my eyes and feel them and will carry this with me ... their presence, protection and peaceful power. I am eager for change of locale--of energy flow--to experience Gaia in a new way and She me. I've been with Her before in the desert but so long ago and was not then in a state of mind and heart to fully bring Her into Self. I can gaze at photos and sense Her wonders but to feel Her under my feet once more will be an incomparable gift for which I am so thankful. I am not seeking fulfillment in Her, in the change of Her face, but rather pure pleasure and growth and discovery. To open to Her changing face and touch Her rough dry skin, She is Crone, Queen, Grandmother who helps us see beyond the surface. She is teacher and I am student, delving within to recover what I once knew but that has been hidden until now. What wonders of knowing await? If I couldn't travel to Her other visage, I would still learn Her landscape of lessons and grow, finding and opening to the opportunities in abundance every moment. I had not even contemplated being able to return to Her other face, Her mysteries of life in the West and Southwest. I had thought that I would only be able to dream of Her or visit Her in Her dusty robes and gnarled hands wise beyond words and subtle surprises of bright color ... to merely dip into Her briefly as circumstances allowed. To now be on a journey back to where I first remembered Her sacredness is a gift beyond measure. A blessing of discovery in each other.