May 11, 2019

    “I am awake!” Gautama Buddha
 
     All of life says yes to spring!  Spring urges us to wake up!  Spring is the dawn that follows the stillness of winter.  The winter months encourage stillness and introspection; a preparation for what is to come.  Spring uses Mother Nature to get our attention.  Mother Nature is always our guide as the seasons bring to us the gifts that have been prepared for our pleasure.  Opportunities are everywhere and now is the time to recognize which opportunities are speaking to us.  We must do our part and learn to recognize the opportunities that speak to us.  We must dare to claim our gifts.  Do not listen to the naysayers.  Without realizing it well-meaning people often put their fears onto us.  They only want to protect us from the possibility of rejection, or so-called failure.  Every chance taken is not wasted but is a learning.  Joseph Campbell says we must say yes to life!   Listen to the birds and see them fly.  Watch the flowers push up through the earth.   Nature tells us that we too have within us an urge and the strength to bring forth the gifts of life that lie dormant within.
       Outside my door today my “for real garden” is blooming and I especially love the daffodils.  This year my neighbor Patricia was kind enough to notice the flowers and posted a picture on FB; thanking me for planting them.  A gesture that warmed my heart and triggered a memory of many years ago.  At home in Key West my husband and I had company.  Like Lily Dale, visitors are frequent in Key West.  Both places are islands and iconic destinations for tourists and seekers.  As we chatted with our company, I sensed a need to go into the bedroom and just lie down.  I did not want to go to sleep so just flopped on the bed and put my hands behind my head.
     Instantly I “noticed” a branch hanging from the vaulted ceiling!  What?  How did a branch get up there?  I was in for a beautiful reminder of spring.  Immediately the branch began to bud and spread until my entire bedroom was a 3D living world of daffodils!   Any semblance of my room was gone, and no thoughts intruded.  The scene began to unfold, and a large calendar appeared in the center of the daffodils and flew quickly through a few years, beginning with and ending with November.  The calendar moved aside, and a vision of a hillside appeared.  My husband was walking hand in hand with a little girl.  The girl looked over her shoulder at me and I knew she would one day be my daughter.  There was more to be seen, but as I often do, I refused to “see” and got up.  That little girl, my fifth child, was born a few years later in November.
       Do not refuse to see!   My teacher taught me to say, “I can see.  I can see all there is to see.  I am not afraid to see”.   What we see may momentarily scare us.  What we see may bring us much joy.  What we see may lead us to our heart’s desires.  Desires we did not even know were buried deep within our being.  Say yes to what is given and live all of your life.  I cannot count the times in my life fear and inattention to signs and opportunities has kept me from the urgings of my soul.  This is a season of open doors; dare to enter.   Fear begone!
                                                                                                                           Namaste! emmy chetkin