"The hidden well-spring of your soul must needs rise and run murmuring to the sea;
And the treasure of your infinite depths would be revealed to your eyes.
But let there be no scales to weigh your unknown treasure;
And seek not the depths of your knowledge with staff or sounding line.
For self is a sea boundless and measureless."

By Kahlil Gibran from The Prophet


Went to the beach yesterday.

The place where I go is national park land and as such is free of the hub-bub of your typical Florida beach.  No hotels, no restaurants, absolutely no cars.  If you stand with your back to the waves, all you can see are breezy dunes covered with native sea grass.  There is no skyline...only sky.  Almost no sounds but the charging and retreating of the ocean and the chanting of sea birds.  It's a long drive, but for me it is a pilgrimage - worth every minute and mile.

The water was cool but not cold, and waves fairly gentle in their arrival on the sand.  I took this opportunity to sit myself down at the place where the ripples roll in like tumbling marbles, close my eyes and do nothing but listen, feel and breathe.  Only takes a few minutes of that to feel far away from the worries of the world and close to the wisdom of the soul.  In no time at all I was both distant and completely and utterly present.  Marvelous.

In that blissful place there was an instant when I felt a gentle touch on my shoulder.  I opened my eyes, was greeted with a smile and after a short, sweet conversation, I watched him walk out into the waves for a swim.

Another deep breath.

I took a moment to look around lazily at the shells and bits of coral that had washed up while I'd been still.  

Not far from me was a tiny heart shaped rock.

I've spent so much time trying to give my heart away when all I really needed to do was invite it to come back to me.

Yep...

You never know the treasures within your reach.

WS

Fire ephemerals are a category of plants that will only germinate, grow and bloom after a fire.  Botanists have all kinds of theories as to why that is...but the theories don't matter.  It's just how it works.  What is seemingly nothing but destructive suddenly produces unexpected new life.

Kind of cool really...

We go through our own times of fire, when it seems as if some unstoppable force is racing through our lives taking out with a vengeance everything we had built and saved and collected leaving behind nothing but naked black trees and dusty ash.  It started with a lightning strike...an unexpected flash of circumstance.  Maybe it was the loss of a job or home or relationship...or all of the above.  Maybe it was a crisis of identity - that moment where one questions who they are and what they've been doing for the last 40 years.  As it's happening, all you can do is stand back, garden hose in hand, and try to stay clear of the flames.

I read a beautiful description of faith by Paul Ferrini from The Silence of the Heart:

"Faith is the perception of goodness in that which appears to be evil.  It is the perception of abundance in what appears to be not enough.  It is the perception of justice in that which seems unfair."

What faith is not is the expectation that someone or something is going to swoop in and "rescue you" from your life.

Embrace the fire.  Trust that beauty and fruitfulness will appear in forms that were never going to be possible in your old life.  Appreciate uncertainty.  Savor it.  It's delicious if you're brave enough to take a taste.

I like what is sprouting up in the still smoldering earth of my life.  It's kind of nice to be free of the dead entanglements.  New life and new love.

A world full of wonder...and a giggling soul.

Peace,

WS