This is an enigmatic kind of question that could inspire much reflection. I have my own avenue of reflection on it.

This morning, during my nature meditation, the second thing I noticed, after the cool, damp breeze on my skin, was how green Kathy’s garden looked in contrast with the golden birch leaves around it. Then I noticed a string attached to the metal bird on top of the bird bath, and running down the side of the bird bath; I had not noticed it before.

Curious, I walked over to the the garden and discovered that the string was holding up a small sweet pea plant with a single sweet pea hanging from it. It touched my heart that Anda had planted the pea and other plants in Kathy’s garden with loving attention. I felt a touch of sadness that it had taken this long for me to notice it.

I ate the pea and savored its sweetness, not just with my physical sense of taste, but from the appreciation I felt in my heart. I also took note of the kale and chard she had planted there and thought that it’s high time to eat these. The snow has come to the mountains.

I reflected upon what I know of this spot. When we moved into the house in the early nineties, the stone circle was there. It was around the stump of a fallen birch tree. On the stump had been a small windmill that the previous owners took with them. Brian removed the stump and we allowed the plants that were already in the circle to continue to grow.

After my sister Kathy died in 2001, my mom sent me a white cherub statue for what had become “Kathy’s garden.” We had planted some annuals in it and also put in the bird bath. Kathy loved birds.

The years went by. Each year we planted new annuals and left the perennials in the garden. Some years we didn’t do a whole lot. When Anda moved in last summer, she had the strong intention to make our lawn into a garden. She began to plant edibles in Kathy’s garden along with the flowers. Her intention was that we would experience joy and love as we ate from her garden. I did just that when I ate the single pea.

All of the attention, love, and care that went into this spot began with the birch tree that lived and died there. I reflect on this and on how the Spirit of the Forest is still here. Even the spot where one of its trees stood carries energy that attracts loving attention.

My drawing below is part of my experience of perceiving the Spirit of the Forest. Kathy’s garden lies between this spot and the picture window of the house, through which I can see the whole area.

Why don’t you make your whole  body into a string and play the music of the vibratory electromagnetic self, and project to the heart of another person?

— Yogi Bhajan

Seva, a service of giving without thinking of result, is a very simple thing. It makes you a leader whether you are or not—whether you deserve to be or not. And it brings you opportunities, prosperities, and all the goods, and God, and goodies of the Universe.

-Yogi Bhajan, April 20, 1989

(Thanks to Gabriela Rocha-Caballero)

O Nature, your maternal life

I bear within the essence of my will.

And my will’s fiery energy

Shall steel my spirit striving,

That sense of self springs forth from it

To hold me in myself.

— Rudolf Steiner

It is within your power to make your life more magical. Let yourself think magically. Symbolically. Metaphorically. Loosen up and let the boundaries between mundane and magical living become thinner. Invite yourself to see like an artist, to think like a poet.

—excerpted from The Power of Magic ¤ Robin Rose Bennett 2012, from We’Moon 2014 p. 151

WHAT TO REMEMBER WHEN WAKING

In that first
hardly noticed
moment
in which you wake,
coming back
to this life
from the other
more secret,
moveable
and frighteningly
honest
world
where everything
began,
there is a small
opening
into the day
which closes
the moment
you begin
your plans.

This morning the subject of my nature meditation was the clear sky at sunrise time. As I watched my breath flow in and out of my body and beheld the sky, I felt its presence was a blanket comforting me. My breath relaxed and deepened, and I imbibed that comfort.

I know, of course, that the sky is a sea of air in which I am immersed and without which I would not exist. Yet I am not always palpably aware of that reality. This morning I experienced this reality for myself and it was so comforting. What a great antidote to the thought that I must bullnose my way through life, struggling to accomplish all the things I have set for myself– an antidote to looking at life as one continuous challenge (that happens in linear time).

This morning I cleared my mind and took a long look at the sunflower on the porch. This photo was taken before a trip we took during which watering was neglected. When we returned, I noticed the sunflower was dying. I watered it, and lo and behold, it revived, flower and all.

This morning my attention went to the leaves, how they turn outward to receive the light. This sunflower reminded me of the power of expecting beneficence. Even though it had been neglected, it responded to the watering and it kept reaching toward the light.

Today I will aim to hold this attitude of expecting beneficence and see what unfolds.