May 2021
A Slow Becoming
Adopt the pace of Nature
Her secret is patience.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Welcome to the Reflection for May!
The lilac tree growing at the side of my home has been my teacher throughout the month of May. Every morning, I have found myself going over to greet her as she wakes from her winter slumber.
It has been intriguing to pay such close attention to one tree’s process of leafing out and becoming. I have watched the buds on her branches slowly open and and her leaves unfurling from their tight wrappings. Every day, an expansion took place during this process of emergence.
It has taken until almost the last day of May for the lilac blossoms to grow and open. This morning, I caught the first whiff of their fragrance being carried by the breeze.
Watching this one tree has drawn me into the experience of waiting patiently for new life to emerge. It has had me musing about how springtime is a season of preparation and waiting. It is a time of planting seeds and waiting for the first signs of their growth. It is a time of building nests and sitting on eggs until they hatch. It is a time of waiting and watching the greening of the world around us.
In a culture fast-paced that quickly moves from one activity to the next, we forget the integral part that waiting plays in our lives. Nature offers reminders that waiting is a necessary part of life-unfolding.
With unfolding blessings,
Kathy
The patience for waiting is possibly the greatest wisdom of all;
the wisdom to plant the seed and let the tree bear its fruit.
-John MacEnulty
A Slow Becoming
The audio file below offers a Reflection on life unfolding amidst the cycles and rhythms of sacred time. The Reflection is followed by a handout with some questions that are intended to help you journal your own thoughts and experiences with the different movements of life, especially the periods of waiting and watching. Please print these out before you listen to the audio file.
You are invited to create a comfortable space for yourself, perhaps light a candle and wrap a shawl around you as you take about 20 minutes to listen to the reflection and then answer the questions. May this be a nourishing and replenishing time of some soul tending.
Reflection Questions
Please click on the button below to download the reflection questions that go along with this meditation.
If it seems slow, wait for it,
it will surely come.
-Habbakuk 2:3
Spirit Garden Moments
Spirit Garden Moments offer a short pause in your day and an opportunity for reflection. The Spirit Garden Moment this month invites you into the quiet gifts lingering in an early morning sunrise.
Kissed by the Dawn
One day this month, I woke in the early morning hours, before the sun had risen. I lay in bed and could hear the murmur of birds singing the day awake just beyond my window. I decided to answer the call of the birds by climbing out of bed and going for a walk in their company.
When I stepped outside, there was a soft, pinkish glow chasing away the darkness in the sky. Mist was lingering in the air along with the scent of blossoms. It was the kind of morning that you could feel the hidden embrace of the Creator emanating all around.
In his book, Beauty: the Invisible Embrace, John O’Donohue says:
“When the soul is alive to beauty, we begin to see life in a fresh and vital way.”
And,
“When we beautify our gaze, the grace of hidden beauty becomes our joy and our sanctuary.”
His words capture my experience of this particular morning as I stepped out my front door and into a peaceful sanctuary of wilderness.
I walked amidst the chorus of cardinals, chickadees and robins for a bit. Then I turned a corner to witness the sun just after it crested on the horizon. I had never seen the sun look like this before, it sat before me, as if perched in the trees, resting for a moment before reaching for the sky. The sight was so achingly beautiful that my hand rose to my chest, as though to hold my heart that was suddenly filled to overflowing.
I once heard it said that a poem is born when the heart is so full that it spills over with joy, with reverence, with love, or with lament. The book of Psalms is filled with such outpourings, as are the writings of Rumi.
Poetry is a language of the soul seeking to express that strange mingling of longing and reverence for the Life that is before us.
And so today, I offer you a poem that was born from this early morning walk in the sanctuary of nature. It is a poem that has nurtured my soul for a number of weeks, and I hope it will nourish yours as well.
Many blessings,
Kathy
To walk quietly until the miracle in everything speaks is poetry,
whether we write it down or not.
-Mark Nepo
In Closing
Throughout the month of May, the mornings have been a wonderful time to observe the slow awakening of new life within and around us. Spring waters have run into flowing rivers, the trees have found their leaves and blossoms have opened to the sun. All of this happens within the rhythms of resting, pausing, waiting, unfurling, and flowing with the rhythms of sacred time. In the days ahead, may we each fall into harmony with the Sacred Time governing our own lives.
Spring blessings,
Kathy
Connect & Share
You are invited to share any of the words or lessons that the element of water has evoked for you, or perhaps what you look forward to each spring. May we help each other welcome the energy of this new season!
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