Nature's Mandalas

None precisely symmetrical our perfect, but all incredibly
beautiful and unique!

The daisies come with special thoughts of Kippy in Nevada

Technorati Tags: nature,flowers,mandalas,spiritual,meditation,perfection,imperfection

Life ‘n death

Image courtesy of Free Irish Photos

As spring makes its vibrant presence known, my mind, heart and soul is tuned into vibrant life. I celebrate life. All around me, the earth is awakening and shaking its feathers out. You can almost hear the tiny leaf buds bursting through the ground in search of the sun. I celebrate my own life too. My life is satisfying and each day that goes by, I’m grateful for new experiences and good health. I could go on, but I wanted to talk about death and no, this is not, in my opinion, a morbid subject.

A few people in my circle of friends and family have experienced death recently, either that of someone close to them or a beloved pet… perhaps even the death of a dream. It happens. It’s part of the cycle of life. The whole point of the ‘cycle’ is that it continues. We’re born, but we’re not born from nothing. As we live, life and death are part of our passage through time. When we die, however we choose to finally ‘go’, we return to the earth to once again nourish life.

We have a family joke that goes back for years where we vowed to donate HRM’s body to science (yes, it is possible - http://hta.gov.uk/index.cfm) when he goes. That should keep the scientists fascinated for a time, I’m sure. Death, to us, has never been a morbid or scary subject, though we do go through heartbreak when we lose someone close to us, but that is because we miss them dearly.

There are so many bewildering options for when a loved one dies - or oneself, if you’re doing some advanced preparation. We’ve been there, sadly saying goodbye to far too many who were close to us. Cremation, burial, a bewildering choice of coffins and procedures. Death, like much of life, has become terribly commercial. I can’t think of anything worse to put loved ones through if I were to go! There are good choices though…. Someone posted a link to an article, which got me looking into more articles, which got me reading (you know how it goes) about options and I have to tell you, I think I have found the perfect way to recycle and recreate myself… a tree! I’ve always said that when I die, I want to be planted without a coffin at the foot of a tree, but this is way better, or at the very least, just as good.

The Bios Urn - You get cremated and the ashes are put into a biodegradable pot along with the seed of a tree. The pot then gets planted, so your loved ones can tend the tree and watch it grow. Isn’t that perfect? The tree will absorb the nutrients from the ash, so I’d be part of the tree. This isn’t a dream of extending my life force, but a dream of being able to help nourish a living thing in my own death. That tree would then go on to provide a home and resting place for all the birds I’ve loved to watch. The tree will glory in each season, giving shelter… and possibly food and homes to animals. Even if the tree gets cut down, it’s not that bad. It will warm someone’s hearth, provide furniture or a part of a home, or possibly become the paper onto which a young soul could journal (or do maths - now that’s karma!) as they go through their own life’s journey.

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The forest speaks

 

~ ~ ~

There is a sound to the forest. It whispers to my soul. It speaks to me of an ancient earth nourishing the roots it holds, of birds chattering on gently swaying branches, each leaf telling me a story of a wisdom older than man. The endlessly flowing stream reminds me of the passage of time, carrying with it all the pains of the past, cleansing, purifying, healing. Rocks, older than time itself, encourage endurance and speak to me of staying strong and true to myself and my dreams.

~ ~ ~

I took a walk. We’ve had some rain, you see. This was the first dry, sunny day. I found unexpected rivers in our country lanes.

The views were all gorgeous!

 

I do love gorse! The gorse here is, to me, symbolic of gutsy endurance, flowering and bringing sunshine to every view right through the dull grey (and sometimes white) winter.

The country lane eventually dwindled into a bramble-filled track that also showed signs of rain and snow melt ‘rivers’.

Roads leading off into the distance have always appealed to me. When they’re in a forest, they’re all the more special!

I think I’ve found the spot I’d love to build a home!

The walk back was as lovely as the walk up.

Even the stones were pretty and fascinating. That stone was half the size of my palm and each black spot is a teeny tiny mushroomy fungus thing :)

All in all, it was a delightful walk and just what this body and soul needed!

Needless to say, a walk on the ‘wild side’, for me, would not have been complete without an ‘incident’. I decided to take a short cut across a water-logged field coming home. Bad idea. Up to the ankles in slimy mud was my lesson-of-the-day. Short cuts aren’t always the right way to go.

 

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Fumbling humanity

A couple of days ago, I was talking to a friend with very different spiritual beliefs to my own. She was asking about how to deal with a child in the class she taught with vastly different beliefs. Just yesterday, I had a chat with Tat about our various paths. This morning, I heard a talk about evolution and where we are in the passage of dramatic change, in terms of spirituality, in the world. Just the other day, I saw a cartoon on how science and religion are finally agreeing - the end is nigh *spoken in an appropriately doom-'n-gloom tone* Needless to say, I can't find the cartoon now.

Among my friends, I have Buddhists, Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Christians, Wiccans, Atheists, Agnostics, Scientists... and a host of other spiritual and non-spiritual beliefs besides.

I spend a lot of time between students either reading, listening to recordings and music or just thinking. Sometimes I think too much and my mind just wanders aimlessly. Other times...

I got to thinking about my friends and their beliefs. I thought back to when acts of terrorism became the norm in the media and how my peace-loving, fun Muslim friends were treated. I thought of the misguided verbal attacks I've read on the Mormons and Witnesses, how many Christians are criticized for their beliefs, and so on.

Why? Why don't humans accept that someone else believes differently?

What is the true religion? Is there one? Do you believe your spiritual choice is the 'true' or 'right' one? Of course you do! We all do.

So let's play "What if..."

What if there's a higher power that made everyone different? What if that was intentional... to give variety and to stop us dying of boredom because we're all clone-beliefs? What if each segment of society or even individual was given a belief system that the higher power (I'm deliberately not giving him/her/it a name here) knew would be acceptable in terms of the individual or group's culture and life experience? What if they're all right? What if there is no one belief that is right?

Let's take an example... 'Enlightened' Christians travelled to the ends of the earth to convert the natives. Those natives already had a belief system that served them well, one that existed before the Christians came along. Who got to choose which was the right one? (Apologies to Christians and natives who were selected randomly purely because they were the first to come to mind.) That is without the division within the belief systems - each belief system has orthodox and unorthodox or radical and each of those branches off into yet more divisions.

Years back, I was looking into various religious beliefs and found it fascinating that vastly contrasting religions had similar root stories, a great flood being just one example. Is it so inconceivable that we're actually all the same and no one can really know 100% for sure that his chosen path is the only right one? Aside from a deep faith and heart-felt belief, that is.