In 1689 in Japan, a kind farmer gave the lost poet Basho a horse that knew the way. And in 1910 when Ted Shawn was paralyzed, before he knew he was a dancer, a dear friend left crutches just out of reach and breakfast on the table. And in 1938 in Paris, Django Reinhardt’s brother left a guitar at the foot of his hospital bed because he knew the badly burned genius would no longer be able to play the banjo. And when Claude Monet at 82 was suffering from double cataracts, he somehow knew to keep painting what he saw, which led him to retrieve his masterful “Waterlilies.” Even leafcutter ants in Costa Rica will carry another ant for miles.

A Question to Walk With:  Describe a passage in your life and how it looked before you experienced it and how it looks to you now on the other side. 

This excerpt is from my book of poems, The Tone in the Center of the Bell.

There are parts of our psychic system that reject the shocks -- the lessons needed for our evolution because they imagine they’re already flying above the world of troubles. It is this mistaken sense of self that stands between us and true self-transformation.

Nothing that resists life can hope to learn from it.

Until we can embrace the lessons that ride into our lives on the back of events, we walk through an isolated world of our own making. Confined and defined by the content of our own thoughts, we are cut off from reality. And, as long as we remain so, there is no hope of realizing our relationship with that limitless Light from out of whose life pours the lessons intended for our transformation.

So, this much is clear: something within us is acting against our best interests. But what would do this, and why? The following insight helps us to see why our lower consciousness —our false self—resists the lessons we need in order to be born anew:

Real learning requires surrender.

Remember in the movie Aladdin when Genie told him to “Bee Yourself”? Genie was really the Universe telling him to show up in his own truth!

BEE is a joyful reminder of the SWEETNESS of life. That no matter what happens, there is always something to delight in. The bee is also INDUSTRIOUS, a hard worker whose efforts pay off in the beauty of flowers blooming and the deliciousness of honey. She reminds us that we too can create beautiful flowers in our own gardens by being present in our daily lives and giving back to the world in a way that supports the highest good of all. A sense of BELONGING is also offered as a reminder of being a productive and dedicated member of our own hives, our communities that we live and work in.

Witness the power of the tiny bee, small yet mighty and important, and emulate that power in your own life!

I've Been Thinking...

The other day, I came across the above poem from my great friend and mentor, the late Mary Oliver. Its opening lines made me stop and think.