Tag: Nature

Reflection

I stand at water’s edge,
with trees above, 
mirrored below.
Like friendship—
a reflection seen,
yet not the same. 
Conveys who I am, 
similar, yet different.
At once solid, yet fluid.
Challenging, yet joyful.
Colorful, yet peaceful.
Encouraging,
playful,
inspiring.
Friendship allows.
Connection to the heart. 
Flows on to thee

“Life is but a mirror looking back at us, uncovering the layers we’ve neglected to see.”

-Bayu Prihandito

“The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise, we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.”

-Thomas Merton

“The way we experience the world around us is a direct reflection of the world within us.”

Gabrielle Bernstein

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The Long View

Soar like an eagle,
work like an ant,
Sing like a dove,
Float like a swan.
All of nature proclaims, 
This is life!
Free of worry,
Alive in wonder,
Each moment open, now to the next.
Trust intuition, instinct profound.
No thoughts to bare down and fill with fear.
Fly free now!
Eagle cries out.
See the truth, beyond the now.

(Image my own)

“If you dream of becoming an eagle, you follow your dreams and not the words of a bunch of chickens.”

-Penny Johnson Jerald

“There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.”

-Carl Sandburg

“If a bird believes it is an eagle long enough, it will eventually end up soaring like one.”

-Matshona Dhliwayo

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Life as a Fractal

I pause and witness a day’s labor:
dead branches piled on the ground,
pruned lilacs in the grove
of unattended neglect, 
young shoots now allowed to grow
and provide the scent of spring
when they mature into bloom.

It is easier to see another’s aging
rather than my own— 
when a tree or a flower
completes its purpose, 
ceases to be its full self, without fear,
it returns to the earth, restored 
to the wholeness of creation.

While my aging manifests in human form, 
the Self that resides within does not grow old—
itself an everlasting fractal of the whole.
When I no longer bloom, when
my mission is complete, 
the Self is absorbed into All That Is.
A new cycle begins.

“Modern humans became fixated on a collective hallucination of linear time, ignoring the fractal spirals of the surrounding universe.”

-Daniel Pinchbeck

“A fractal is a way of seeing infinity.”

-Benoit Mandelbrot

“Any issue and any problem, no matter what height you look at it from, no matter how much you extend past the first fractal, it’s still a fractal of something that emanates from within your consciousness – from within the human consciousness. And it’ll move on and manifest itself externally, and then those are what we pick up as societal ills. But all these battles we’re fighting are internal. For me, it’s reconciling hope with dread and trying to cut out some place in my mind where my heart can be protected a little bit.”

-EI-P

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Co-creation

Rise from slumber.
Fling open the curtains.
View the world
after whipping wind,
and pounding rain unfold
a newfound calm.

Hummingbird flits,
flower to flower, 
dining on fresh nectar
made from an offering
of digging, planting, 
and attending.

Produced in co-creation, 
a feast for an unknown 
and welcome guest.
Joy rises to meet
this day, and spirit
unfolds before us.

“We exist in a co-created reality in which we cannot always choose all our circumstances. But how we think and feel about a given situation is always our choice.”

– Anthon St. Maarten

“The time is now for transformation. It is a new era and we are poised with the opportunity to bring in new consciousness, and co-create a new reality. Why? Because the light within each of us has been turned on and it’s our job to turn that light on brighter and brighter until all false thought forms dissolve in the light of our truth.”

-Dr. Michelle L. Casto

“Feeding birds means feeding yourself! Birds are part of nature and feeding nature is nothing but feeding yourself!”

-Mehmet Murat ildan

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Living Bliss

I ask myself, why do I feel so tormented 
with deer who do what deer do:
a flower recently planted lies smashed 
out of its pot—limp on the ground,
the tops of the magenta beauties 
stand stripped and bereft of color.

As I stop and breathe, feel the turmoil of wanting 
to welcome and wanting to be left alone,
I witness the paradox of inviting in all of nature
and then wanting to control who arrives.
I ponder life’s abundance; I understand that
all the colors I want, and need, are always before me. 

I enjoyed magenta beauty as I walked past 
in the day, aware of her within my display, 
in the large red pot. A deer enjoyed magenta beauty 
as she walked past one evening and became 
one with the excitement of her desire. 
Now, which of us lives in bliss, I wonder.

“Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise.”

-Thomas Gray

“Just think of any negativity that comes at you as a raindrop falling into the ocean of your bliss.”

-Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.”

-Joseph Campbell

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Waiting for Bloom

We wait patiently for peony to bloom,
to open and shine in all her glory.
Might she feel the excitement
in being all that she is,
the anticipation as stem grows stronger— 
stands taller reaching for the sun.
We too wait for blossoming, 
not always patient,
wanting to be all that we are.
We forget that each moment of 
loving and being arrives at the next,
until next is lived, and then next, 
and on until our heart petals open in joy
and we arrive within to all that is

“How does the meadow flower its bloom unfold? Because the lovely little flower is free down to its root, and in that freedom bold.“

William Wordsworth

“If your heart is a volcano, how shall you expect flowers to bloom?“

Khalil Gibran

“May my soul bloom in love for all existence.“

Rudolf Steiner

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All That Is



I wanted to write of peace, then I thought of wars.
I wanted to write of hope, then I thought of suffering.
I wanted to write of compassion, then I thought of judgment.
I wanted to write of the flowing river, then I thought of ravaging floods.
I wanted to write of the beauty of water, then I remembered those dying of thirst.
Instead, I write of the purple iris unfolding before me in peace, love, and beauty.
All that is, I trust, in this one, wondrous moment.

“You are a limitless consciousness, Love, and the One who contains within yourself all that is.”

-Raphael Zernoff

“Being present is being connected to all things.”

-S. Kelly Harrell

“In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.”

-Aristotle

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Good Neighbors

It is spring and I am practicing setting good boundaries with my deer friends who have increasingly befriended our property and my plantings. While they enjoy a chomp on a green and succulent Hosta; clip off the top of the prized Asiatic lily that I have been waiting to see for two years; leave me phlox that stand stripped of their vibrant purple; I am left dealing with my feelings of being invaded by those who are not aware of what it is they do. In one word: fences. I have been planting fences. Telling myself this is mine and that is yours. Will it work? As in all relationships it is an unknown, but I am making change for me with a desire to live happily with those who love our land and bring beauty when they visit. Life is about connection, is it not? Letting it all go without stating my honest feelings and clarifying my position feels unsatisfying and lacking in integrity. How can I get upset when I have not done my part? Yes, Robert Frost, let us hope that “good fences make good neighbors.”

“When we fail to set boundaries and hold people accountable, we feel used and mistreated. This is why we sometimes attack who they are, which is far more hurtful than addressing a behavior or a choice.”

– Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection

“Creating an atmosphere of mutual respect and consideration for boundaries, can lead you to the path of personal happiness.”

-Nancy B. Urbach

“No” is a complete sentence.”

-Annie Lamott

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To Living, To Life

I express deep gratitude to the mother who said yes to birthing me into this world—a world of beauty, challenges, pain, love expressed, with opportunities to give, develop this soul, give of self.

Beauty not found in perfection in her or me, but beauty in the raw truth of living. The opportunity to walk this earth, breathe this air, touch another human, feel the depth of pain expressed in tears, learn to keep going when all seems lost.

I look at mother robin who created her fragile nest atop our trellis against the east facing wall and see determination, duty, purpose, and faith as she watches the rise of sun in each day, protects her eggs, and waits for life to unfold.

In beauty it is so. Joyous good wishes to all mothers in this day and always.

“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”

-Pablo Picasso

“Birth is not only about making babies. Birth is about making mothers…strong, competent, capable mothers who trust themselves and know their inner strength.”

-Barbara Katz Rothman

“Birth is an experience that demonstrates that life is not merely function and utility, but form and beauty.”

-Christopher Largen

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The Same Light

Light entered my world today, not from the east, solely from the north. A swath of blue and white within a sky covered with dark clouds. Instead of the window I look out to see the expected, I choose an alternate window to see the unexpected. The same light seen through a different world view.

“It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view.”

—George Eliot

“If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man [and woman] as it is—infinite.”

—William Blake

“In this treacherous world, nothing is the truth or a lie. Everything depends on the color of the crystal through which one sees it.”

—Pedro Calderón de la Barca

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