Lu's Awfully Big Adventure

As some of you know, we have been having very tempestuous weather lately. 

At the end of May, to have rain is quite normal. However, we had five days of rain, with three or four of them involving steady and heavy rain. There were high winds from the cold north as well. On the day before the end of the great storm, we had snow. The snow was thick and heavy. There was much damage to many trees and plants. 

I had been holding the intention of hiking up Mount Echo to see the Lady Slipper Orchids in bloom. It is their time now. 

It is a hike of about 45 minutes to reach the one spot where these wild flowers bloom in our area. 

My friend Eva accompanied me on this epic journey through the devastated landscape and the wreckage of the storm's aftermath yesterday. 

We were almost forced to turn back near the beginning of our adventure, because the streams and brooks are running so fast that we had no hope of spanning the small stream that blocked our way without ending up with soaking wet feet. And since the temperature was close to the freezing mark, we couldn't afford to have wet feet. So, we ranged upstream, looking for a way to cross. 

Eva was so resourceful! She found a fallen sapling that was strong enough to bear our weight if we crossed one at a time. She hauled it to the stream's edge and with my help, slung it across the raging stream. With the help of my hiking poles and a friendly tree branch above us, we made it across!

Another heavy flowing stream awaited us a little further along the trail. We were able to span that stream using the rocks that were just above the water's rush. 

Heavy mud and many fallen trees and tree branches made our progress slow. But helping each other as we went along, and speaking of such important matters as the heavenly music of J.S. Bach, we eventually approached the site of the orchids. 

I didn't know what to hope for, to be honest. All along we had seen terrible damage to the trout lilies and the Clintonia borealis (Blue Bead Lily) which luckily are plentiful in those woods. There was rain wash out damage, snow damage and wind damage. Many plants had their leaves broken and torn by the storm's fury. 

As we approached the place where I knew the orchids had been growing well last year, my heart beat fast and I became a big anxious. 

They were hard pressed by fallen branches from a huge dead tree just there where they were growing. They were growing so bravely through the snow!

What I have found, time and time again, is that those things that we love will always survive the storms and trials of life here on Earth. That which we treasure, will endure. The challenges of extreme weather and constant change are not enough to break the orchids or to break us. We, and all that is beautiful, will endure, will grow and will evolve.

Bowed down somewhat, perhaps, but unbroken and still so precious!

Breakfast by the orchids, photo opportunities, and then the careful trek back down the mountainside made our adventure complete.

Eva was a wonderful companion on my adventure and we both hope to have more such in the days to come.

I hope that you who read this will also enjoy your experiences, be they calm and peaceful, or challenging through storm and strife. This is life!

We Won't Wait Any Longer

"We won't wait any longer, we are stronger." This is part of a song by Ian Corrigan. I heard it many years ago.

It came into my consciousness this morning, as I thought about the world today and how we are in the world, how I am.

Ever since I was very young, I have loved. I have loved sweetly and gently and without reservation or conditions. I have loved the world with all my heart.

And I am not alone in this. Many people have felt this love in their hearts. Many people have felt this sweet communion with the world.

We were taught that we should not love. We were taught that loving hurts and is dangerous. We were taught to hide our love away. We were taught that loving in this way was foolish and silly.

But we loved anyway. Quietly, secretly, sometimes ashamedly, we loved anyway.

We loved the world when the bombs fell in distant countries. We, some of us, loved the world when the bombs fell on our own countries. May we all send our deepest honouring to those of us who have lived through that and love still.

We loved the world when the lies were told to us, over and over again.

We loved the world while the rich got richer, while the liars and cheats stole millions and billions and trillions from the poor and the disenfranchised of the world.

We loved even as hypocrisy seemed to triumph. Even when hypocrisy, greed and corruption sounded their winnings from the rooftops, still we loved deep in our hearts. Our love never wavered, not in that deep place within us. It did not hesitate. It was not diminished.

We loved the world whenever we saw some small corner of it, untouched by greed, unsullied.

We loved to see the innocence in the young child's eyes.

We loved the sweet purity of a wild flower.

We loved all those parts of the world that cannot ever be owned or fenced - the sky, the oceans, the clouds.

And yes, we cried sometimes. Sometimes, when the darkness of hatred and anger, of greed and me versus you and us versus them became too much for us in our love, in our sweet, golden unconditional love, sometimes then we wept. Sometimes then we cried out for help.

We need not cry anymore. We need not hide our love away ever again. No, not ever again.

We are so much stronger now, in our love, in our light. We dwell now in the first sweet rays of exultation, for the world is changing and it is we ourselves who have wrought this change, who have worked this miracle.

We love openly now, filling the world with golden light, even more than it already is, even more every day.

We don't wait any longer. We don't hide anymore.
We don't wait any longer. We are stronger.

We are free now.

All the ways that we can love the world are ours now to enjoy.

We are safe now.

We are in a new world of love and light for all.

And all the times that I have felt silenced, that I have felt judged for being what I am - a beacon of love and light in the world - all the times that I have felt that I must be a crazy fool to love the world as I did, all of those times, are wiped clean now, are released from my being, as just a bad dream.

We are free now to love the world and to heal it and free it and make of it all that it can be - a place of love and light and freedom for all.

Feel it. Love and light and freedom for all.

The tide has turned.

And our love is now the way of the world. I know this to be true, as I know that the sun rises and the grasses grow.

I love the world. This has always been true, but now, when I say it, it is very different for me than all the other times that I have said it. For now, I say it without apology, without that self-deprecating shrug of the shoulders.

Now, shoulders back, head held high, I say with all my voice,

I love the world. And I am mighty in this. I am exultant in this. I am joyous in this. I am vast and powerful in this. I am triumphant in this. Yes. I dare to say it. I am triumphant in this.

We won't wait any longer. We are stronger.

Poems and Photographs

If you enjoy the poetry and photographs that you see in various posts on this blog, please consider exploring my other blog, http://hereandnowwithyou.blogspot.com


That is where I am posting all of my poetry and photography for people to enjoy.

A Gift More Precious than Gold

I have wondered why we value the metal gold so highly. I believe that we do so because golden light is associated with the energy of unconditional love and peace. This is the energy of Yeshua, of the Christ that lives within our hearts.

If you would like to give this gift of love and peace to the world, you might like to try this beautiful meditation which I have been doing for some time now in the early mornings.

Quiet yourself in a place of peace. Breathe deeply to center yourself in your heart space.

Imagine the planet Earth as a sacred sphere small enough to fit in the joined palms of your hands. As if you were holding gold dust, imagine the planet Earth to be sitting in the joined palms of your hands.

It is actually hovering just above your hands, as golden light surrounds the sphere. This golden light is like a loving embrace that supports the planet Earth as it rests just above the palms of your hands.

Now, send more and more golden light to this sphere. Send golden light of compassion, of love, of peace and of healing energy to every part of this sphere that is our beloved planet Earth. Surround and bathe and wash the planet with golden light.

Send golden light without worrying for even an instant about where it goes and whom it touches.

The golden light awakens all of humanity to the love of God which is in each human heart. By whatever name you know this Supreme Being and Becoming, that is what pulses and thrills and sighs and knows within your heart and within all human hearts.

The golden light flows to every part of the planet, to the cities and the countryside, to the open pit mines and the clear cut forests, to the wetlands and the deserts. The soothing, loving golden light flows to the young mother, the old soldier, the rapist and the murderer, the doctor, the lawyer - yes, even these. It flows to the victim and the perpetrator, the healer and the one so in need of healing.

The divine golden light goes everywhere as you hold the world in the palms of your hands and send that light forth from your own divine love, your own divine heart of God.

This is something that we can do right now, as planet Earth and all of humanity move together through a time of amazing transitions and new becoming. It is a wonderful time. It is a challenging time. By sending this light out to all, you help all to become that which they have, in the deepest places within them, known themselves to be.

This gift, which takes only a few minutes each morning, will fill your own heart with joy and peace. It is a gift more precious than all the gold in the world. It is the golden light of unconditional love, peace on Earth and goodwill to all who dwell upon this sphere.