Greetings on this fine morning,
I hope your life is moving forward into a new normal that feels right for you. The opening up and moving back into life feels wonderful, and my optimism is rising today.
I appreciate that there are aspects of my life that I am happy are returning. For example, my local library has just re-opened after being closed for over a year. It was a joy to go back in there, to say hello to the staff, and to get my hands on some new books :) YEY.
Then, some aspects have emerged that would not be part of my life now if the pandemic had not happened. During the first lockdown, David and I took time to explore our neighborhood for green spaces to walk in. We found three or four hidden gems that we would not have found otherwise. They are a normal part of our daily life now. And there are a few things I would be happy if they never came back, traffic jams, to name but one LOL!
The Sunny Optimist would not have come into being if I had not been in lockdown. This whole experience has been so life-affirming for me, and writing is a normal part of my week now. I think about you all and ponder what your life might be like at this moment. I love to contemplate what little gem I can drop into your email box that will make you smile.
So today, dear Sunny Optimists, I wonder,
What delights are you calling into your new normal?
What are you looking forward to reconnecting with?
What will you not miss at all?
As always, I look forward to hearing from you. Please know that there is no pressure on you to comment, although I love it when you do. Thank you for your continued engagement.
Flowers as an Evolutionary Power House
I decided to complete the month of April with a guided visualisation from the book Meditations through the Year by Dorothea Breitzter-Kings. I love this book. It has a simplicity and elegance that is just delightful. In the visualisation Dorothea walks us through a large garden where we spend time with the sights, the smells, and the sounds of this time of year. The best bit was sitting down and looking deeply at a flower and taking in all of its beauty. She then invites us to enter the flower as a bee does. To 'be' within the flower was a remarkably centering experience. I felt refreshed and renewed afterward. Mmmmmm.
Many moons ago, I read somewhere that the emergence of flowering plants led to a massive burst of evolutionary innovation. I found it fascinating that with the ability to bloom, plants were able to move into a co-evolutionary relationship with insects. The plants adapted their colour and shape to attract insects. The insects, in turn, adapted their bodies to access the nectar. With the arrival of fruit, mammals were brought into this co-evolving dance. This symbiosis has underpinned the evolutionary success of plants, insects, and animals.
There is something very moving about learning how something as small and as delicate as a flower has been so impactful on Earth's ecology. I wonder about this time we are in as an evolutionary dance. Will we as a species be able to return to a co-evolutionary dance with all of Life? I do hope so.
Click here or on the photo to access the flower visualisation. Enjoy!
I do hope you enjoy the meditation. Feel free to share this with your family and friends. As always I would love to hear from you.
Wishing you a happy day.
Ann
Thank you Anne.
What a beautiful meditation - Just sighing into gratitude. I am practicing to see Cherry Tree Lodge with fresh eyes, cleaning my lenses of perception and en "joy" ing what I am seeing. Your description of the terraces leading to a willow and a small pond - ahh!
Deep peace to you
Mark
Thank you for this Ann! So delighted to be so beautifully introduced to Dorothea's work. This offers a wonderful moment of nature connection so dear to my heart. A glimpse of our pristine origins and a peak into a harmonious, blissful future that is quietly awaiting our discovery of it now. I believe we are creating this together. The more we are able to give ourselves these peaks the more real it becomes and the closer we come. It's up to us and down to us. X