Gifts

An unexpected gift from a friend!

Plants, books that are beloved, a plate of home made cookies, a slice or two of home baked bread, or cake, a wee bit of curry because the spices were exactly right and you HAD to share the joy of that creation, these are such infinitely precious gifts! Sweet and straight from the heart, the joy they give is unbound and timeless!

I remember receiving a tiny little money plant eons ago! I still remember that bubble of joy I felt on receiving it. So sweet and unexpected! Now that tiny plant has turned into 5 beautifully flourishing plants. And the jasmine, a parting gift from a dear neighbour! It flowers every summer and the scent is exquisite! It also reminds me of home where jasmine grows in abundance.

These little ones will be cherished for a long time to come!

What are some of the sweetest gifts you have received?

 

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Bleak

 

 

It is bleaker than bleak. And so quiet. Not a peep from the birds, the squirrels are quiet, too. Sleeping in most likely. I would, too, if I didn’t have a gazillion things to do.

There are carpets to be vacuumed, table tops to be dusted, dinner to be cooked.

But before all that, a quiet cup of tea, a pine scented candle for light, and a heart grateful for another beginning, another day.

Ageing, but young at heart.

Wrinkles, grey hair, they are all inevitable. Beautiful for the stories they can tell. It is the natural flow of life.
But how my thoughts age, and my heart, how I spend the rest of my days, those are the things that I wrestle with every day.
And those days when I ask my heart how did you do today and it says pas mal, pas mal, are happy days. More so because they are so few and far between.
There is so much to learn. And isn’t that one of life’s true purposes?
To live fully, inquisitively, and everyday through enquiry move closer to our true self?

More things.

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy”.
– Hamlet

Came across these gorgeous mushrooms on our walk yesterday and this quote fleeted through my mind.

No, I do not walk around nimbly quoting Shakespeare everyday, but this one has stayed with me ever since I came across it many many years ago. Perhaps because it applies to so many things. Even ‘ordinary’ everyday things. Add yeast and sugar, and the dough rises like magic, and then there is this quote, and you feel the world expand into a gazillion magnificent mysteries and at the same time narrow down to the risen dough under your gently kneading fingers.
So many things in heaven and earth, Horatio…so many magical things.

Step out for a little.

The disgust was sudden and absolute.
Well, maybe not so sudden because it has been building up for a while.

What are we doing to this world?

I did not need answers so much as a respite for a moment.

So I stepped outside.

Straightened the tomato plant that was leaning, from the weight of it’s own fruit, and the heavy rain from the night before pelting it sideways. Found a string to pull it up and tied it to a post. Maybe I imagined the sigh of relief.

A squirrel leaped onto the red umbrella and pulled itself up to the top, getting a bird’s eye view of the grass, the tomato plants, the chillies. Maybe it’s keeping a tally of the fruit. 10 for the humans, 10 for me. Maybe I imagined a squeak of delight.

Or maybe it was I, sighing and squeaking, as the grace and simplicity of the natural world washed over me and I felt renewed and strengthened. Hopeful.

I see you, hungry paws.

I see you, yes, you.
Digging about with your hungry paws
deep into what I have put of this earth
into that pot.

I see you,
rooting about for the seedling I planted
in spring,
when you were but a little fledgling
in a warm nest.

Now that seed has grown,
and so have you.
And I see you with your curious eyes,
and your hungry throat,
rooting about for life,
going where your instinct leads you,
and your insatiable hunger.

I see you,
and I see me, in you,
wanting to dig deep into that eternal soil
where we reach for our thoughts,
for our love,
where we find sustenance, hour upon hour,
for our insatiable souls.

I see you, and I see me, in you,
reaching deep
with my hungry paws.

Wind

I am like that little piece of flag,
that little square of orange, or
green, or blue, or red,
that flutters in the wind, directionless,
until, for a moment,
a very brief moment,
the wind stops, and I know where
my heart lies, and where my soul
is tethered;
But the wind picks up again,
and it is all I can do
to hold on.

Gazing deeply.

I am of this land,

I am of this piece.

I am of the azure above

and all else underneath.