Core

Within the landscape of our lives we meet the lions and the mice, the herons and the roses, we walk among the stars shining their brilliance, and play with the fireflies, we run with the laughter of the butterflies among the flowers into the depths of the forest and come out the other side to swim in a river and cross to the other side, and continue our travels along a winding path that has no destination for we are the destination. 
Our landscape is the map to where we find ourselves, we are the pot of gold at the end of Her rainbow and we are the gold coins, each of us sharing the melting pot with all the lives and beings and experiences along our journey. 
We create within the pot a unique blend of soul experiences which are formed into a Soul Coin that is a fragment of the whole--for an instant I believe I am that coin separate and solitary--yet the Light comes in Her warm divinity and we all melt together into Her glowing molten Core of purity and essence and spirit beyond the single coin. 
My life journey is not mine alone but carried along in a river of gold--the river of tears fears joy bliss sorrow--and rolls and heaves together pounding and trickling alternating in force or gentleness as we flow together smoothing rocks and uprooting trees that will grow again downstream, building homes for some of us while others are disfigured-transfigured-transformed through breaking down and pulling apart to be explored and understood on a level that wasn't apparent a moment before. 
I flow downstream and grab a rock, pull myself out and spread my flesh upon the smooth hard surface to dry and warm and become the form of this new experience to take the opportunity to embrace this moment in the solitude of insight and reflection. 
Hold a fluid mirror cupped in trembling hands and see what is revealed, my body tattooed in scrapes and scratches and bruises, stained by the sweetness of berry juices, softened by petals of a thousand blossoms, covered in mud that is drying and staining and then flaking off with each movement of recovery from the toils of the flow with all the complexities and the simplicity of Life. 
The river of life in form that reflects the growth of my spirit, the soul within this birth that chose to come and to experience specific interactions with all those who chose to interconnect with me! Together we have created experiences unique and sublime, not in comparison but in rapture.
The eyes to see and know this life only grow and shine the light of love when they perceive beyond comparison into the Unity veiled from the blind. 
Balance the experiences I need and desire with those I feel drawn to learn from when instinct may say turn away yet from beneath comes the jewels and the golden coins at the end of the rainbow. 
Come home to the molten Core. 
Come home to Mother Earth. 
Come home to the Infinite that chose to manifest within one's Soul to experience here and know how to see in new ways, always growing, for growth from Core is Infinite.

Affinity

"There's an affinity between my body and the sensible presences that surround me, an old solidarity that pays scant heed to our overeducated distinction between animate and inanimate matter."


"If we allow that matter is not inert, but is rather animate (or self-organizing) from the get-go, then the hierarchy collapses, and we are left with a diversely differentiated field of animate beings, each of which has its gifts relative to the others. And we find ourselves not above, but in the very midst of this living field, our own sentience part and parcel of the sensuous landscape."


~ David Abram, Becoming Animal - An Earthly Cosmology


Easing into the day, slow steady start.
Joyful routines and gentle motions of body and mind, fluid and smooth.
Grace.
She comes in with her weeping cherry bridal veil, dreadlocks sweeping the fine sediment at Her feet, in a union of elements and spirit within the peace of home and heart.
I feel an over-riding love and joy that permeates this glorious morning as the sun shines and the birds call and all is well.
The tones of the chimes sing to the fingers of the zephyr.
And the branches wave and stretch, the sap running, softening, spreading throughout their limbs bringing flexibility and new growth.
Alive and tingling, buds emerging everywhere!
They are popping up in curiosity to explore the world this new season, same as millenia before yet also uniquely unfolding within the constraints and alignments of people and planets within Gaia; we are all cut from the same cloth draped across Her shoulders and flowing down Her body to become and pass and know.
All is freedom, all is choice.
In Her I know the magnificence of living an existence unbound yet structured.
Duality means nothing except a concept in which to plant ideas like all the pots in the market of every shape, size and color holding a million varieties of plants.
Yet I don't grow in a pot anymore; She has brought awareness and this realization allows my arms to overflow the brim and my roots to break through the bottom and the pottery cracks, then falls away, the colorful shards create a pattern upon the sand and become a beautiful play, a memory, a role of such delight but one unable to contain my spirit, a living knowing Spirit seeking to understand and Be One with Her.
I grow with the rain of Her love, and the support of Her soil, and the passion of Her shining spirit, and we breathe together, admiring the shards of my former pot, creating a unique mosaic that is lovely yet limited, and depicts one aspect of one life of one being who is not One at all but interconnected with all.
And then, I feel something further. What's this?
Emerging from this field, from within the green transformative essence of living tissue, a tiny flower, just a bud, delicate, precious, fragile begins to open and I smile with this bloom of my heart and soul of Gaia manifesting.
I open, spreading, and a scent floats upon the breeze as I send compassion out to be with anyone who will pause and inhale and, for a moment, we see through the same senses and become One Spirit and all is Peace, Joy, Bliss, Love.
I am that flower, that tree, that rock, that cloud drifting in oceans above and below so perfectly blue that all cares disappear and we are Infinite.

Goose or Duck?

Beautiful weekend, shared by my friend . . .

The Great Mother

"Her self-evident mystery is one of Divine love, 

the very presence of the eternal in the transient 

like the fragrance exuding from a flower."

~ Shambhavi

funny...
I selected this flower photo to post and then recalled
that it was guiding my journey
on the road to Mom's house last year....

Center of the Circle

Desert Willow (chilopsis linearis)
photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons

"Do you want to improve the world?
I don't think it can be done.
The world is sacred.
It can't be improved.
If you tamper with it, you'll ruin it.
If you treat it like an object, you'll lose it.
. . . 
The Master sees things as they are,
without trying to control them.
She lets them go their own way,
and resides at the center of the circle."


~ Tao Te Ching #29, Stephen Mitchell


      I knew when I woke yesterday morning that it would be a day of respite . . .

soft and gray

mist at play

soothing senses deep

calm the day

Her gentle ways

bring rest and silent sleep

     The muffled sounds wrapped around me like a fleecy blanket that cocooned me from the world and my own anxieties, easing me into a space of stillness where could rejuvenate . . . slowly, easily, quietly. Yesterday, not even any music playing, only the breath of life, the sighs of contentment, the exquisite sense of slumbering senses as muscles relaxed, tension waned, release came and a curtain of pure peace was draped upon my soul. Without pushing myself, I spent most of the day writing, reading and snuggling with the animals.

     The final essence I read about as dusk eased into the house was Desert Willow and the flower's image enthralled me even before I read of its healing energies; it's "harmonizing qualities are those of being flexible, feeling respite and 'in the flow' of life, moving to the perspective of comfort and ease no matter what the situation" (Desert Alchemy Flower Essences). I paused to meditate upon this beautiful, gentle plant and Her spirit, feeling Her resonance. 

     Then, before falling asleep, I opened the Tao to where I had left off reading many weeks ago, and the passage quoted above was the one revealed. I repeated the last two sentences of it over and over, in meditation, and felt the 'three control issues' I'd been struggling with this week simply melt away. 

Changing

A lovely morning out in the yard with Otter and Gump, our feisty, opinionated indoor/outdoor cats. These two are quite the characters and, although they love attention from people - and even enjoy interacting with the dogs - both of them as they matured became increasingly aggressive with the other house-cats. We racked our brains and finally came up with a solution we are all happy with--the indoor/outdoor cattery/kennel! Now that winter is passed, Otter and Gump, sister and brother, are thrilled to be able to once more roam the yard and hunt; Otter catches bugs and butterflies, while Gump goes for the bigger game of mice, voles and birds. I don't enjoy the hunting, and often find myself warning away various creatures, but when I'm not quick enough, I try to just look the other way and let the cats do what they do naturally!

This morning, much earlier . . .

Feel Her surging through me, 
Gaia strong and clear,
knowing Her power and love as She is near,
honest feelings ebb and flow
as I breathe calmly, deep and slow,
let float a smile into the air
where all can feel it roaming there 
and here and everywhere!


Let loose the worms and frogs and birds
that toil and carry all their words
from sea to shining sea and me I
share what words I carry through the night
and scatter them in dreams upon the world
maybe they will root and then unfurl 
into the moonlight-sunlight-shadow
full and strong with all I know
yet leave the openings all around 
for all I've yet to learn abounds!

Singing to the trees I feel a freedom
heady in its joy, for they embrace what comes
and they accept on Her behalf 
whether they are full or cut in half
or downtrodden to the mud
yet in Her embrace they rise above,
living breathing glowing changing
all of life . . . always rearranging.


My ears pick up part of a conversation, or I catch a glimpse of a headline, and I want to say...

Skip the hype descending from all angles and the fear and anger, let it go, too! No place for you, Dear Fear, to live here, for I embrace you, love you and set you free to become so much more than the little darkness that seeks to hide and control. Instead I take you in, let you visit, and love you, heal you, then set you free. We don't need to sit in the dark at the same table day after day, Dear Fear, drinking bitter memories and nibbling on terrible fears of future. Put in the sugar, drizzle the honey of life's bliss, sweeten the cup and allow Her love to overflow into our mouths and bodies and hearts and Spirit! Feel Her soaring within! Her sweetness made all of the uglies beautiful by transforming -- transmutation! Just as the plants transmute one element into another and create more than they started with, so can we!


So many beautiful energies always near to touch and feel and become One with. No need to dwell upon the forces that come in like opportunistic parasites and try to take hold. Give them a moment, for all have validity, and then pull them off, let them go, set them free to continue a journey of transformation having provided their piece of the Infinite puzzle of Life. 

Like a labyrinth we travel always to Her when we maintain our focus--the path is clear, winding but clear, obstacles but not insurmountable. Only becoming a maze when we allow mind and fear to control our journey, lashing out or reacting without reflection; a maze with its dead ends and crushingly narrow turns and confusion that builds, growing so tall we can see nothing except our fear and fear of death. Trim the hedges, clear the walls, break through and travel the clear labyrinth once more to Gaia and love and healing and the beauty of all potential awakenings...

Just yesterday, I looked around, opening to Her, wanting to make sense of what I could see ...

Soil and leaves and organisms within, 
where does death end and life begin?
We rake the leaves and clear the lawn
of all the detritus from the past -- now gone.
yet letting nothing remain behind
is to close our hearts and loose the mind
to control all that we see and feel, 
and disallow Her Grace to bind and heal.
Clear the palette thinking 'how pristine'
yet all we do is hide the pain, unseen.
Shoved aside and carried away, 
where are the piles of leaves in which to play?
Gone the natural humus of the soil.
Gone the rewards of how all Beings toil
and share themselves when they are through
so the rest of Life can begin anew.
Instead we substitute a falsity, delusion,
in thinking we know better, yet all is illusion.
"Look how clean" we say with pride, 
but what about all those who died
and whose gift of life transformed?
We have removed them, life balanced no more.


Yet I didn't dwell but let it all go, enjoying each bud, each green leaf, each playful scamper.
Gaia is always willing to shine Her light for me to follow...