The last few days of rain did wonders for the lawn, the plants, and the weeds. Today, in most areas, things dried out enough that I wouldn’t get my wheelchair stuck in the mud. Taking advantage of the accessibility and the earth remaining moist, I decided to go out to pull some weeds; oh my goodness there’s a lot of them too.
Not only are there a lot of weeds but I noticed there have been a lot of critters walking about. Well, maybe not a lot of critters, but, there are a lot of critter prints. I could see where the deer stood as they trimmed the little lilac bush and nibbled on the tulips. Mingled with Cadbury and BabyCat prints are raccoon or skunk or fox prints, I’m not really sure. I felt like a great tracker as I attempted to identify the prints and where they entered and exited the property.
Along with being a lot of weeds and a lot of critter prints, I also noticed a lot of critter pooh. It became increasingly difficult to avoid the pooh while pulling the weeds as the weeds seemed to growing up from under the pooh. While tossing the pooh and pulling the weeds I began to think about a blog I visited earlier this morning at www.dirtyfootprints-studio.com. It was three photos and a short read all relating to circles. Now, don’t misunderstand me, there is nothing about Connie or Dirty Footprints Studio which remind me of pooh. It was seeing the critter footprints then thinking of her studio name dirty footprints then her post and, well, the thought process took off from there.
It seems the critters eat what’s growing in my planters, then pooh in my planters, followed by new things growing in my planters. It appears to be a cycle; a circle. I looked up at the trees and plants growing in the planters and the yard. Not only do they grow upward towards the heavens but they grow around, circular. I looked next to me at the busy ant hill which too is formed in a circle.
A gust of wind blew past me and I thought of a dust devil and a tornado. Both are funnel shaped, swirling, and circular; a hurricane too. And yet, found within the center of even in the most violent of storms there is calm; at the eye of the storm. An eye; the center of which is circular.
I saw the sacred circle of rocks which I like to place around the trees. I even wrote about placing these rocks in a blog post in March entitled “Bouncing In Psalms”. This sacred circle reminded me of other sacred circles such as circling an alter, or casting a circle. There’s the circle of life, again I wrote of something similar back in February entitled “The Wheel of Life”.
Even being new to yoga, I realize, there are a lot of ‘circle’ things going on with it. Before starting a series of exercises or a meditation I do the Adi Mantra which, when finishing, I visually sweep the space around me and envision myself being surrounded by white light. One of the meditations I enjoy doing is the Kirtan Kriya. “By practicing Kirtan Kriya, we begin to understand the cycle of creation…everything comes from God and everything goes to God.” (from http://www.spiritvoyage.com/meditation/Kirtan-Kriya/MED-000035.aspx )
I looked up at my house, which isn’t circular at all except for the window above the front door, and thought of Native American dwellings. Why I thought of them I’m not sure; maybe because the third photo on the Dirty Footprint’s blog is a Native American image or perhaps because I felt like a great Native American tracker while identifying the prints in my yard; either way, I did think of these dwellings, such as the Tepee, Wigwam, Hogan, even an Igloo all of which are constructed in a circular style.
All of this Native American thought reminded me of a quote I had read by Black Elk. I knew it had to do with circles but couldn’t quite remember the heart of it to do it any justice. I had to go find the quote, so I climbed back into my wheelchair and entered my square dwelling. Before logging into my laptop to begin the search, I lit a few candles. The shape of the flame was like a Tepee, circular, and the puddle mark from the melted wax, it left a circle.
Black Elk’s quote is beautiful –
"You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves."
Over and over again on this my 49th year journey I find I have so much to learn. I’m not sure ‘to learn’ is the appropriate phrase; I have so much from within needing to be discovered, revealed, so much intuitiveness waiting to emerge. I think it’s stuff I already know, I just don’t know I know it yet and it longs to be known at deeper and deeper depths.
In BIG, Connie provides tools and instruction on how to open the door to intuitiveness. BIG is BIGger than FEARLESS painting; through my BIG experience I have become braver, more courageous in opening myself up for discovery and sharing these treasures with others. BIG reveals the sacred in all things. It has guided me to a keener sense of my spirituality, of Mother Earth, and the connectedness of others seeking the same.
All great teachers continue to teach; today is a prime example of this. From Connie’s short blog, Mother Earth’s whisperings, and Black Elk’s infinite wisdom I gained a greater insight to human existence, to my own existence, and how all things exist together; all stemming from a simple circle.
No comments:
Post a Comment