Seasons of the Soul

The Wisdom of Nature

 

 

Years ago while working in the garden, the spirit of a tree in my backyard spoke to me. It was through impressions, and was very clear in its directives of what should be pruned and what not. While working in the garden I sensed a beautiful cooperative effort between the soil, insects, plants, all playing their parts with perfect grace and attunement.

The tree impressed me with the idea that a certain branch was to be left alone, for there was an important purpose in its being draped as it was. I followed the impression and noted as I sat inside looking out that its shape was beautiful and added to the garden rather than detracting from it. Another aspect of my impression was to make sure that my housemate did not cut that branch either. However, since she never gardened, I didn't remember to tell her what I felt from the tree.

The next day, I came home from an outing and was immediately aware that something was wrong. As I walked to the patio doors, I froze in horror. The beautiful branch on the wonderful tree had been cut so that the little tree was shaped like a bowl, not in the artful natural flow it had created on its own. I felt its pain, and sat in tears as I realized I had not followed through with the full directive I'd been given.

When my housemate came home, I asked her why she had cut the branch on the tree. She said it offended her idea of order, and she decided to cut it so the tree would look perfect. I was very emotional at the time and told her what I'd received. She didn't seem concerned, and thought I was being overly sensitive because I hadn't wanted the branch cut. My reaction was surprising even to me, but I knew I had done something to jeopardize the tree's health. I felt deep grief, and went out to "speak" to the spirit of the tree. I apologized and told it I would listen and act upon what I heard from that time forward. There was no answer from the tree, just a deep feeling of sadness.

As the year progressed, the little tree began to wither. Leaves and berries that previously came forth in profusion did not appear. By the following year, it was clear that the tree was dying. I knew that somehow cutting the branch for the purpose of making it look "perfect" contributed to its death. There was nothing I could do.

As I reflected on that tree and the message I'd been given, I saw how we as humans have the capacity to be part of a harmonious flow with nature. But when we allow our will to supersede nature's direction, we become unconscious perpetrators of destruction. We need to develop a capacity to listen as we walk into the garden. Then we can expand our awareness to a feeling level of what the garden has to communicate to us. Truly fine landscape architects know this. They walk the land they are to design. They feel the needs of the garden. Their purpose, like that of a great artist, is to liberate the essence and vibrancy within the land. By working WITH nature, a symphony of beauty is created. Through the imposition of our will alone, we lose the benefit of nature's wisdom.

A Perfect Life

In this season of festivity and family, many people feel lacking and focused on what isn't working. The following is an experience I had that made me look at the deeper meaning of life and put things in perspective.

 

 

 

One day I received a call from a woman who was paralyzed. She had overcome cancer only to be faced with a debilitating illness that forced her to life in a wheelchair. She was barely able to dress herself. She told me that life was a daily challenge, but that she took the things that happened to her as a signal to go deeper, to understand more the blessings that WERE in her life It wasn't that she didn't experience moments of despair...she did. But she realized that there was meaning to her life, and that she must find the gift within the pain.

She works now with others who are facing health challenges to inspire them.

When I got off the phone I looked at my own life, and thought about how many of us agonize over trivia. We make huge crisis out of things that for this woman or for someone facing REAL distress are merely annoyances.

We often lose sight of our lives as a blessing. Yet they are. And in our rush to have everything be perfect and right, we hold a rigid line between ourselves and anything that threatens our concept of that perfection. It is the Cinderella story playing itself again and again in our psyches...that somehow if we do everything the way we "should"...life will give us a prince or princess or whatever else we see as the ultimate fantasy goal, and THEN we will live happily ever after.

We are told through all religious precepts that life is a reflection: As Above, So Below...and this can also be looked at from a perspective of As Within, So Without, or visa versa. We live in a self-reflecting universe, and as seasons come and go and return again, so does life bring us a little summer, a touch of autumn, good and bad winters, and the blessed renewal of spring. We learn that life goes around, not straight ahead.

In our journey, we all want the "best" life has to offer, but sometimes what is for our greatest growth goes way beyond our comprehension of what that might be. The struggle to maintain a rigid ideal of what the "best" is can be limiting to our potential. We need to open ourselves to allowing life to be the teacher, and to follow its lead as open minded students. What we are given is always an opportunity for growth...growth that is the most important kind...that of our soul.

Butterfly

 

In the process of metamorphosis there is a very delicate time of not quite being. The story is told of a man who walks along and sees a butterfly caught within its cocoon, struggling to free itself from the constraints of the protective shield surrounding it. As he watches, the man determines that he will help the little creature free itself, and with his pocketknife very carefully cuts the membrane that separates the butterfly from freedom. As the little butterfly feels the air, it moves its wings, and falls to the ground, unprepared to fly. A bird swoops down, and the butterfly becomes a meal...all possibility of further gracing the world with its unique contribution gone.

The object lesson is that the cocoon is the protected testing ground where the butterfly must work to prove its endurance before emerging into the world. What appears to be a struggle is the necessary strengthening that builds the muscles and tissues into cohesive wings of glory. And so with us. We view struggle as something to avoid. Yet, it is because we have been tested within the cocoon of experience that we become champions. Without endurance, we are prey to the whims of fate. With strength, we can rise to meet whatever is on our path with assurance that we have the wherewithal to fly. And in viewing another who is also being called to prove their own endurance, we must allow them the necessary time of strengthening without interference, so that they, too, will have wings of glory. Then we can all fly together as an unbroken legion of light.

Use It or Lose It

 

 

In the United States we have been given a gift from our ancestors who risked their lives to insure that we would be a free and democratic country for the people, of the people, and by the people. Over the years, this country became the beacon of light to the world. We went through many different versions of ourselves, but always there was pride in being American, and an understanding that freedom is only safeguarded by participating in the process of choosing the leadership from local, state, and national levels that would insure that our democracy and freedom would prevail.

My partner and I have been involved in the electoral process as election officials for the past 13 years. We serve as Field Techs for the county in which we live and during each election have 6 precincts that we monitor and assist with technical difficulties. As the years have gone by, it has been very clear that fewer and fewer people vote. We see that the majority of voters are either elderly or immigrants. The immigrants come into the polls with pride and appreciation for the ability to vote, many of them from former repressive regimes where they had no say over the quality of their lives.

In the United States, we see shrinking numbers of voters each year. People are so busy trying to make a living and so disillusioned with politics and the dysfunction of our government that they have opted out of the process, determining that their vote won't make a big difference anyway. In this misguided thinking, they also forget that local and state elections are vitally important to the quality of governance at those levels, and that by not voting, power is given to a few special interest groups who have a definite agenda of what they want from the country, and who are committed enough to their cause to make sure that they ALL get out to vote.

By abdicating one's right and responsibility to vote, we are handing our government over to the few who are dedicated to insuring their success in a view that may not match what the majority wants, but will be the predominant rule because the majority was too busy to take time out of their day to vote, or too busy to educate themselves about what the important races are about.

There is another sad commentary to this turn of events. More and more money is being spent by candidates who have backing from "deep pockets" and the media will naturally gladly take their money in exchange for airing commercials that are intended to sway voters and win the election. In this political reality of today, excellent people who would be great leaders cannot aspire to a role in governing unless they are either wealthy or willing to "sell" themselves to sponsors who will want something in exchange for the donations to the political cause of the one running for office. In this way, we have created a system that is heavily tilted towards special interest groups, those who are wealthy, and those who are willing to sell out for the financial assistance of political backers.

To top off the list of woes connected to this, the consolidation of media into the hands of less than a dozen conglomerates indicates that there is a bias in what is presented and in the intended objective of those who own the airwaves. All of this is counter to the concept of democracy of, by and for the people. What people?

And the answer is unfortunately very simple. The ones who vote!!

Walking Into God

 

 

 

I've noted that we are all sleepwalkers. We see our daily reality as THE reality, and we go about wandering in the wilderness believing it is the real deal. Yet, there is always something hauntingly missing from the quotient until we wake up.

The great teachers and sages of all traditions through time have attempted to point the way, but many ignore the signposts and advice, much as teenagers do not want to listen to their elder

So, in thinking of this, I recognized that as we are born into life, we are separated physically from the womb of insulation and thrust into a reality that appears to be composed only of physical elements surrounding us. We adapt to this physical reality and play out our years in accordance to opportunities, impulse, and expectation. The underlying hunger that propels us may be channeled into goals and personal success, or we may simply see ourselves as victims of an unfair deal, making our way through the process with minimal effort or enthusiasm. However, at some point, there is a yearning for something more - something beyond the self that we have come to identify with as being us

At some point, all the messages that confirm our separateness cease to make sense. We recognize that going it alone or feelings of "us against them" do nothing to make our lives better - only to further separate us from an inner knowing that lies deep beneath all the layers of illusion we've come to accept as real. It is when this gnawing desire to know truth hits us that we look for something more - something beyond what we've been told is real. It is then that we recognize in the teachings of "as above, so below" that if we spend a good portion of our lives in a state that is asleep, returning to waking and questioning the weird dreams or illusions presented in the sleep state may indeed be a clue to what is going on in our seeming reality time. In other words, maybe we are asleep right now, playing out a scenario of separate self that is as bizarre as some of our dreams. Perhaps we are not these separate selves at all, and that there is something bigger awaiting our awakening.

A bridge to reality is often needed for those of us who have been steeped in the sleep mode. This is where so many of the spiritual teachings come in. We have guides to help us. We have those who have become enlightened - who have woken up - seeking to aid us in our own awakening. They are the bridges we sometimes need to help us to walk into the real world - the one that has no separateness - the one that is God.

In looking out at the garden and at the sky, it dawned on me that any illusion of separateness is ridiculous. After all, I cannot exist without the air I breathe or the environment that feeds and clothes me. I am utterly dependent upon all of it. Yet, we see the earth and its abundance as something we can use and defile - as though it has no connection to us or us to it other than as a useful tool. How can we be so arrogant as to think that what we depend upon for life is a tool? It is part of the system to which we all belong, and all of it and us is one system that is fully alive - not separate systems where one is more special or prized, and another is of little value. Where does air begin and end? Where do sky and earth not connect?

Through the multiple traditions, there are many names and ways to recognize unity in consciousness. Yet, interestingly enough, most are born of separateness because each often claims the exclusive right to enlightenment. Only through this teacher or this tradition or these practices can you become part of the "in" group, and if you don't adhere, you are an outsider - banished from the kingdom.

When we really take a look at how ridiculous any claim of exclusive domain is, we see things from a clearer perspective. It is as though we have been propelled to the top of the mountain where we see the 360 degree view of all connected in one sweeping panorama of beauty and awesome diversity. Everything is an expression of the One. We are part of this beautiful earth, the part of our system that keeps us alive. We are united with space and cosmos as well. All of it is one continuum without artificial boundaries that separate any of it from the other, save in our minds.

So, as we feel the stirrings of awakening, we open to the concept that perhaps we are connected also in God. Perhaps we are not some separate thing out here that is an eye sore or insult to that which it truly is. Perhaps we and it are one consciousness expressing in diversity, just as nature, who we hold as inanimate and separate, expresses through multiple forms in concert with one another to bring life and growth and renewal over and over again. Perhaps if we saw earth and God in terms of our bodies - we would be able to have an eye opening experience. How does the heart be separate from any other part of the internal organism that is the guts of what keeps us living? How can we choose one part of the essential running of these bodies as the exclusive one, when without everything in harmony, we suffer minor or major ailments and disease?

Our bodies are cells in the larger body of consciousness, God, Allah, Christ, Source - whatever we want to term it. And until we recognize that we are that larger reality expressing itself, we can use the intermediaries and luminaries who help us to bridge the gap. Once we wake up, we can move forward with or without external guidance, because we "know" who we are, and then we are open to the journey of a lifetime - Walking Into God.